When the minister for the environment and rural development, Ross Finnie, addressed the Scottish Coastal Forum Conference in Perth in April on the subject of the proposed Coastal Marine National Park, he only seemed aware of whale watching and diving as marine leisure activities.

It's time to get our foot in the door of the Scottish Parliament and use the increasing amount of economic impact data, be it on employment, turnover, or tourist income, to sell ourselves. And we should use this to flag up the added value the leisure marine industry brings to the Scottish economy.

It is only by making government aware of marine leisure as an economic sector worth fostering that we will get adequate support for marketing the marine tourist product, less objections by planners to new marine developments and more provision of training for the ever-increasing number of employees needed for our expanding industry.