The Open Seas’ ‘Dived Not Dredged’ event, held at the Inver restaurant in Argyll, celebrated seafood that supports both healthy seas, sustainable fishing and local communities.

Four chefs – Pam Brunton from Inver, Lloyd Morse from The Palmerston, Davy Stinson from Glorisoa and James Ferguson from The Kinneuchar Inn – produced a meal using hand-dived scallops — a premium, low-impact seafood product that avoids the damaging effects of dredge fishing.

This issue was recently brought to mainstream public attention through the ‘Ocean with David Attenborough’ film which premiered earlier this month.

Representatives of The Sustainable Restaurant Association and the UK’s Good Food Guide also lent their support for the campaign, championing the power of restaurants and their menus to inform customers about the importance of fishing catch methods to evaluate the real impacts of seafood.

Scallops are predominantly harvested by two fishing methods: hand-diving and dredging. Scottish hand-dived scallops are widely recognised as the gold standard in both quality and sustainability.

Hand-diving is a highly-selective fishing method that minimises damage to marine habitats, eliminates bycatch, and supports coastal economies. By contrast scallop dredging damages seabed habitats with heavy metal rakes, and is still permitted in 95% of Scotland’s inshore waters.

Chefs from across Scotland’s hospitality scene pledged their support for hand-dived scallops and discussed how the industry can help protect marine habitats by choosing seafood sourced from local suppliers that prioritise sustainable fishing methods.

Andrea Ladas, sustainable seafood officer at Open Seas, said: "This is about leadership. We are sending a clear message that good food doesn’t have to come at the cost of our seas.

“By backing hand-dived scallops, these chefs are championing a better way of fishing — one that protects the marine environment while supporting Scotland’s fishing heritage. Scallop dredging is having a profoundly damaging impact on our seas, and we need to find alternatives to reduce those impacts, while still providing seafood for us and for future generations."

The campaign follows in the footsteps of influential Scottish chefs, such as the late Andrew Fairlie, who previously spoke out about the impacts of scallop dredging, arguing for better fisheries management to protect the future of sustainable seafood gastronomy in Scotland.

Open Seas is urging seafood buyers, wholesalers, and retailers to follow the example set by these forward-thinking chefs, supporting hand-dived scallops and rejecting seafood caught using destructive catch methods like scallop dredging.