Another year, another initiative announced. Fisheries secretary Richard Lochhead has committed three-quarters of a million pounds to "revise the management approach of inshore fisheries" which he concedes have "often stood in the shadows of other fisheries sectors."

COAST digs beneath the headlines and explains what this might really mean...

The main question is simple; what does the announcement mean? 750,000 quid is to be spent on a new strategy building on the IFG work, improving fisheries science and better engagement with creelers. Is this not a tacit acknowledgement of the failure of the IFG initiative?

Far from coming up with sensible and progressive measures for inshore fisheries management, the IFGs exposed the inability of the mobile scallop dredging and prawn trawling sector to manage itself even when it had the opportunity to write its own rules. The same vested interests are now potentially slowing down the marine protected areas initiative.

It has always been clear that if bodies such as the IFG are to succeed they must represent fairly all legitimate stakeholders including creelers, sea anglers, local communities and marine conservation and restoration groups, without yielding an effective veto to the mobile sector.

A Government release now states that creelers represent 80% of inshore vessels. Is Lochhead now accepting their role at the policy table? It’s hard to tell from Mr Lochhead’s announcement, which on the one hand seeks to placate the dysfunctional IFGs while on the other seems to indicate they may become redundant in a new regulatory marinescape, following the drawing up of the Scottish Marine Regions.

Even if the Scottish Government is alluding to the possibility of a new more representative structure to oversee the management of coastal fisheries on a regional basis, experience so far has shown that without real political desire and leadership these structures will continue to deliver a damaging status quo. Valuable inshore fisheries will continue to be degraded. We have all had enough of the stalling and false dawns which a national inshore fisheries conference (also announced) promises. That said we live in hope and with hope we have expectations. We expect Richard Lochhead to make decisions which will help create the conditions necessary for our inshore waters to recover from decades of over exploitation and destructive fishing practices. Full support for the current MPA process and an inclusive, multi-stakeholder approach to fisheries management would do for starters. That takes political will and a lot more than £750,000.