SCOTLAND and its fish

From Scotland, George Sassoon answers my question about Norwegian-owned fish farms there: "I'm not the 'laird' of the entire isl of Mull, but about 2% of its surface. There are also British-owned fish farms, but the Norwegians have more money to invest thanks to their oil. They own a very large proportion of the North Sea oil fields and have a comparatively small population, so the per capita oil income is very high.

The west coast of Scotland is preferred because of its many sheltered inlets, while east coast waters are open and completely unprotected from raging seas. As regards ownership, the inshore waters below low-water mark are the property of the Crown and administered by the Crown Estates Office. Presumably the Norwegians pay a rent to them, as also to the owners of the land on which the fish farms' onshore installations are built. Curiously, in the County of Argyll, landowners own the foreshore and the sea bed as far out as they can ride a horse at low water spring tides without getting their stirrups wet. Elsewhere, everything below high water springs is Crown property.

Economically the fish farms are a good thing, as they provide employment for young people with children to keep the schools open. Also, they provide facilities to local people such as use of their machines and slipways. Recently I had the use of a Manitou machine and driver, a thing like a very large fork-lift truck. When they are 'harvesting', we can buy fish from them.

The fish farms are about the only economically viable businesses in the West Highlands. Farming is a disaster, and forestry is moribund. That leaves only tourism and catering for the needs of people who bring in money from outside. We are quite fortunate to have a reasonable level of tourism over a quite long season, due to the current craze for 'wildlife'. But who knows how long that will last. In mid-October we have the Tour de Mull car rally, and after that everything shuts down till about Easter".

My comment: You will remember that George discussed the isle of Mull in connection with the feud between the Campbells and MacDonalds. Incidentally, there is no truth to the rumot that Tom Campbell left Stanford for Berkeley because of threats from the local MacDonalds. You will look in vain on a map for the famed county of Argyll; in 1975 it was divided into Highland, north of the Caledonian Canal and Strathclyde to the south of it. It was a wise move, since Argyll must have been the largest county in Britain, and the capital, Invernaray, a small town near the top of Lock Fyne, was pretty inaccessible. Inverness, the capital of Highland, is at the entrance to Loch Ness. As for the Argyll landowners riding into the sea, I assume they rode on their high horses. George does not mention sheep, once the pride of the Highlands. I am distressed that the peace of Mull is rent by a noisy "tour". A horse race or even a fish race would have been better. I know Scotland as far north as Glasgow on the west and Aberdeen on the east coast, but not the beautiful area to which this refers. I have long wondered what moved Samuel Johnson to travel to the distant Hebrides. I must look into that.

Ronald Hilton - 9/15/02