A new report has shown that rare species could re-colonise Scotland’s seabed if given a chance to recover. The study – using predictive modelling to understand the distribution of Fan Mussels – reveals the massive potential of Scotland’s Marine Protected Areas to enrich the health and complexity of our seabed.
Fan Mussels (Atrina fragilis) is one of the largest and rarest bivalve molluscs in UK waters and is listed among the most threatened species in the North Atlantic. The authors explain that the “distribution of A. fragilis is known to be negatively affected by benthic fishing practices), as fishing gears can damage the emergent portions of the fragile shell and dislodge the animal. The first pass of benthic fishing gears has the greatest impact (more…)
Our new report ‘Living with the seas’ outlines a forward-sighted vision for marine planning to take a lead role in environmental recovery. Launched by Scottish Environment LINK’s Marine Group, the report sets out key recommendations for how Scotland’s marine environment should be managed. At its core, the report argues that the Scottish Government, local authorities and Regional Marine Planning Partnerships should ‘plan for recovery’ by seeking opportunities to enhance our marine environment via the planning system. The authors of the report make clear that regional marine plans must be well-resourced to be effective and that mechanisms for strong, meaningful participation must empower coastal communities and underpin good decision-making. We wrote a press release about it here.
Countless millions of cotton buds are now polluting our seas. In this guest blog, Fidra’s Clare Cavers explains the background to the Cotton Bud Project and what is being done to tackle this plastic problem at source…
Visit the beach and you may well find yourself scanning the tideline for that perfect pebble or shell, only to find a litter of man-made objects amongst the natural debris. In the tangles of seaweed are lots of little plastic sticks, often mistaken for lollipop sticks or straws, but actually the remains of some of the hundreds of thousands of cotton buds flushed down toilets every week in the UK.
Because of their size and shape, plastic cotton bud sticks slip through wastewater (more…)
Our Marine Group members took part in a conference dedicated to marine spatial planning, Sea Scotland 2016. The conference, which attracted delegates from across Scotland and beyond, was co-organised by seven organisations, including Scottish Environment LINK. Following a gathering swell of interest from marine planners, community stakeholders, policy-makers, MSPs and representatives of marine industry, the conference welcomed around 100 delegates (more…)
The Ministry of Defence is tasked to ‘defend the realm’ – Sarah Dolman, Senior Policy Manager for Whale & Dolphin Conservation explains that do that, it must improve the assessment of its own environmental impacts
Joint Warrior is the largest multi-ship, multinational, multi threat exercise led by the Royal Navy in UK Waters. Taking place bi-annually with activities generally concentrated in the waters West of Scotland or in the Northern North Sea, the waters off East Scotland and at times in the Irish Sea. Exercise Joint Warrior ended this weekend and will continue for 2 weeks again in October.
Exercise Griffin Strike was a one off bi-national, joint service, (more…)
Most eyes are on the UK’s EU ‘in-or-out’ referendum, but meanwhile our MEPs are considering important fisheries decisions; namely whether we act now to place urgent limits on deep sea bottom-trawling
Over the next few weeks (or possibly months), European representatives should – after years of negotiation and political delays – decide how best to regulate the damaging effects of deep sea bottom-trawling across European waters and to sustainably manage vulnerable deep-sea fish. Deep sea bottom-trawling is a form of fishing that tows weighted nets across the seafloor at depths (more…)
It is being hailed as an innovative step for local marine research: the community of Fair Isle is now setting in motion Scotland’s first Demonstration and Research Marine Protected Area….
A few weeks ago, the Scottish Government launched a consultation on a special approach to marine protection – the first of its kind in Scotland. And for the community of Fair Isle it is a huge milestone in a long (more…)
FOI requests from Whale & Dolphin Conservation reveal the back-story, but the bigger picture is that we risk missing a chance to coordinate on management
In January the JNCC and Natural Resource Wales launched a consultation on setting up marine sites to protect harbour porpoise in English, Northern Irish and Welsh waters. Unfortunately due to questions about the quality of underpinning evidence, the Scottish Government delayed proposals for (more…)
New documentary footage shows why protecting and recovering our seas will help our struggling seabirds.
It was a graphic reminder of just how urgent it is that we address declines in our seabird populations. As part of a BBC documentary exploring Scotland’s dependence on seabirds and the threats they face, Adam Nicolson journeyed to a cliff-face on Orkney. A black and white photo from the 1980s at Marwick Head showed each ledge packed with kittiwake nests, a high rise flat for literally (more…)
Marine Policy Officer for Scottish Environment LINK, Esther Brooker, takes stock of lessons learnt during recent debate over the management of MPAs in Scotland…
After a heated and drawn-out debate on the recent inshore MPA management measures, some of which faced the threat of annulment in Parliament, it’s time to step back and think about where these fall within the bigger picture and how we move forward. Remember, these management measures are just the first part of what must eventually become a well-managed, well-connected, UK-wide network of MPAs, to which Scotland is required to contribute under domestic and European law. So once these first management measures (Marine Conservation Orders and Fishing Orders) are adopted and in place, where do we go next?
There’s still a long way to go…and the target is to (more…)
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A new report has shown that rare species could re-colonise Scotland’s seabed if given a chance to recover. The study – using predictive modelling to understand the distribution of Fan Mussels – reveals the massive potential of Scotland’s Marine Protected Areas to enrich the health and complexity of our seabed.
