Madam,

I am a second generation Welsh scallop fisherman. My ambition is to hand over a sustainable fishery for my son and future generations. We employ four local men as crew, in other words our boat provides an income for five families and supports other related businesses in North Wales. I write to you dismayed by the huge amount of confusion and misunderstanding about the Cardigan Bay scallop fishery and the Welsh Government consultation for management of the fishery in the Cardigan Bay Special Area of Conservation - there are currently a lot of people being very vocal on an issue they clearly understand very little about.

If I may clarify some of the confusion relating to the Welsh Government scalloping consultation and the scallop fishery itself: following complaints to Europe by Environmental NGOs in 2009, the fishery was temporarily closed in the SAC whilst an evidence-gathering exercise was implemented. This was never about whether or not to reopen some of the traditional scallop beds - but rather how best to manage the fishery sustainably and in keeping with EU habitats regulations.

The very thorough and detailed six-year survey and assessment work carried out by Bangor University in collaboration with Welsh Government, Natural Resources Wales and the Welsh fishing industry has produced the necessary evidence to deliver a management system that will secure a sustainable, economical and environmentally viable fishery for the future maintaining a healthy marine ecosystem that is in keeping with the very stringent ‘Habitats Regulation Assessments’ that are required by EU law to allow fishing to take place. To put things into context the small part of the closed area to be reopened is in the western sector of the SAC, and covers only a fraction of Cardigan Bay, which is a large expanse of Welsh territorial waters with its western extremities being Bardsey Island on the tip of the Llyn Peninsula to the north, and Strumble Head near Fishguard in Pembrokeshire at its southern end. Regarding the accusations that scallop dredging destroys the seabed, the extensive scientific evidence gathering programme led by Prof Mike Kaiser (a world respected marine ecologist) and his team at Bangor University have provided the evi-dence necessary to confirm that natural sea bed disturbance, caused by storms in the shallow waters of Cardigan Bay, has a far greater impact on the seabed than scallop dredging given the highly dynamic nature of the sea bed habitat in the area studied.

Every time I’m home from the sea, I walk along the beach where I live and, during unsettled weather, the beach is constantly changing depending on the strength and direction of wind and the state of tides. One day the beach could be covered in stones and the next day those stones could be buried under three feet of sand. The same happens further offshore - and who can forget the storms a couple of winters ago when half of Cardigan Bay ended up on the promenade in Aberystwyth.

There are many that are accusing the Welsh Government of acting irresponsibly over this issue, this simply is not true.

The local scalloping fleet, and the dolphin population that visit Cardigan Bay have co-existed for over 40 years and there is no evidence to suggest that dolphins would be adversely affected by the propose measures – in fact the measures would enhance protection.

Yours etc

Mark Roberts

Pwllheli