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Guest blogger Sarah Dolman, Policy Manager at Whale and Dolphin Conservation, and Save Scottish Seas campaign member takes a look at Scotland’s nature conservation MPAs three years since their designation, and looks ahead to the next steps required.

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Summer is upon us, and for many that means heading to the coastline to catch a glimpse of some of the amazing wildlife Scotland’s beaches and seas play host to. Scotland’s coast is arguably the best place in Europe to see dolphins, porpoises and whales, attracting visitors around the world. Basking sharks – the second largest fish in the world – can also be seen in west coast waters in the summer months, as can magnificent seabird colonies, seals, otters, osprey and more.
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Hosted at the RRS Discovery Centre, Dundee, the second Sea Scotland conference drew together Scotland’s marine users, scientists, policy makers and more to share knowledge and discuss solutions to some of the greatest challenges and opportunities facing the sustainable management of Scotland’s marine area.
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Upcoming artists and graphic designers were asked to ‘picture’ a sustainable Scotland, and show Members of the Scottish Parliament what is needed to give Scotland a sustainable future at Scottish Environment week, a parliamentary event run by Scottish Environment LINK earlier this year. Four of these fantastic images focused on environmental challenges in the marine environment. To celebrate World Ocean’s Day we wanted to share these brilliant pieces of work.

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Scotland’s Marine Protected Area (MPA) network is designed to provide place based protection to maintain representative habitats and species in good health, and in some cases support recovery, for rare, endangered and vulnerable habitats and species. All MPAs require unique management measures that provide protection to their identified features (habitat and/or species) from damaging activity,  (more…)

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Flame Shell in Strome Narrows, Loch Carron

You might have heard about recent events at Loch Carron. Back in April there were reports that scallop dredging, a form of fishing that pulls heavy toothed metal rakes and chain bags along the seabed, had damaged a flame-shell reef in outer Loch Carron. (more…)

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 A few weeks ago, inshore fishermen, policy makers, NGOs, scientists and more came together to discuss Scotland’s inshore fisheries at the fourth Scottish Inshore Fisheries Conference. The need for continued collaboration between all marine stakeholders to work towards a positive and sustainable future of inshore fisheries management was clear.
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As North Atlantic coral populations are under threat from climate change, mountains beneath the sea, or “seamounts”, could hold the key to maintaining ecological links between them…. Read our guest blog by researcher Alan Fox delving into the deep and explaining why MPA networks need to account for a changing climate.   

 
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Growing up to 10m long, and often seen ‘basking’ with their huge mouths open at the surface, basking sharks cruise Scottish waters each summer. This gentle giant, the second largest fish in the world, was once fished commercially around Scotland for the oil in their huge livers. The commercial fishery for basking sharks severely depleted their numbers. A once common but now rare sight, it is thought basking shark populations have decreased by 80% since the 1950s.
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Biodiversity is the variety of life on earth, its biological diversity. Healthy habitats form the foundations of healthy and biologically diverse ecosystems that provide many ecological benefits. There is growing recognition among scientists that ecosystems with high levels of biodiversity are more stable and resilient to change, such as those caused by coastal and offshore development, fishing activity and those predicted with climate change. While unhealthy ecosystems can have negative knock-on effects through society, healthy marine ecosystems can result in greater long-term benefits to society, such as food provision, minerals, storm and flood protection, and they can also store carbon (more…)

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