They’re Scotland’s Fish! Implications of Brexit for Scots Fisheries Law

The law relating to freshwater fishing in Scotland is purely of national origin and so will not be affected by Brexit. By contrast, most of the law governing sea fishing in the waters around Scotland, and a significant part of the law relating to salmon farming and other forms of aquaculture, is European Union (“EU”) law. The aim of this note is to examine how this will change following the UK's withdrawal from the EU.

In order to understand this change, it is necessary to know something about the current situation. That is outlined in the first part of this note, looking in turn at the EU's Common Fisheries Policy and then at Scots law. The second part of the note discusses what is likely to happen after Brexit. This must necessarily be rather speculative, given the state of the Brexit process at the time of writing (late September 2017). The discussion is based on the assumption that Scotland will leave the EU at the same time as the rest of the United Kingdom (“UK”), and that whatever arrangement for the future relationship of the UK to the EU is eventually agreed will apply to Scotland, notwithstanding the fact that the Scottish Government may wish otherwise.