The Trust will be throwing open the doors of its café, The Green Tree, in an effort to help raise awareness of the challenges currently facing the Scottish fleet.

The kitchen team will be serving up taster portions of fish dishes using sustainable stocks in the hope that it will inspire those attending to look beyond more traditional species.

There will be an opportunity to sign the petition in support of Hugh's Fish Fight – the high profile campaign to stop the practice of fish discards. It is hoped that a local fisherman will be attending to explain how detrimental this is to the industry.

There will also be a prioritisation session during which those present will be asked to debate which issues they feel are most important to the local community.

Trust chairman Ian Hardie explained: "When the Trust launched two years ago we gave disposable cameras to local groups and asked them to take photographs of the things they liked and disliked about the towns.

"From that exercise we were able to gain a very firm idea of the issues that concerned people the most and where we needed to direct our attention. We felt it would be beneficial to carry out a similar exercise to find out if the priorities remain the same or have changed with the passage of time."

The feedback received from members following the Trust's last open meeting in January was that the more relaxed format was much more appealing. In keeping with the wishes of the membership, there will once again be no formal committee business at this event.

The meeting takes place at The Green Tree on Monday, April 18th at 7pm. In order to allow for catering arrangements, those planning on attending are advised to RSVP no later than Thursday, April 14th by contacting the Trust on 01261 815185 or emailing This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it