Comment.

Tuesday 21st:

Spoke to Ian MacWhinney at Dry Island to-day (for an hour). He featured on BBC Scotland’s programme ‘Prawn Wars’ BBC One Landward , Well worth a watch.

Ian and his wife own Dry Island up at Badachro, they do something very similar to ourselves but much more accessible than us for sure, they even have a pub at the end of their floating bridge access, great.

We were discussing the programme and The BBC filming him all day fishing, for a few minutes slot but sadly  not getting over  what he is about. He does ‘Shellfish Safaris’ like we do and the best thing he says is the guests appreciating what goes into catching these wonderful shellfish we have in the seas around us. But doing this is not hammering the seabed. He did and still does ‘proper’ fishing but he says he could not make it pay all year round. I guess the weather too dictates days at sea rather than rules in this part of the world (for the small boats).

It would be such a shame for the fishermen  to start falling out over trawlers versus creelers and to not just sit round the table and discuss the way forward. For sure sustainable fishing and leaving a supply for future generations is the way forward. On our side (The Sound of Raasay) the fleets of creels have diminished since a peak a few years ago, where some of the fishing boats have moved on or just packed up. The boys on this side seem to get on ok, with local trawlers fishing alongside the creel boys without any problems.

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This is a new page, based upon the column in the Gaurdian ‘What I am Really Thinking’. It is in Saturday’s magazine issue.

We have so much going on that it is difficult to include it all, so here we have the chance to share some anecdotes that arise on (or off) the Isle of Rona.