Q&A Q A &


How would you summarise the current health of Scotland’s seas?


While there are some glimmers of hope, Scotland’s seas are in a diminished state due to climate change, overfishing, unsustainable development and pollution. Scotland is home to internationally important populations of seabirds, seals and dolphins, and habitats such as flameshell beds, maerl beds and coldwater coral reefs, but all four governments within the UK have failed multiple targets due this year to ensure that our seas are in good health and that fishing is sustainable. Business as usual has brought our seas to the brink, and transformative change is urgently needed.


How would you describe our current relationship with the sea?


It is diverse and varied. For many, the ocean is vital for supporting livelihoods in fishing, wildlife watching, aquaculture or offshore energy. Many people now realise that single-use plastics are choking the ocean and that they rely upon the sea for a sense of wellbeing. Some remain unaware that we rely on the ocean for half the oxygen we breathe, to help regulate the climate, and that we have stunning sealife on our doorsteps. We still have a long way to go before we stop taking the ocean and all it does for us for granted.


Some 30% of Scottish waters are now covered by a network of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), but what level of protection do they actually provide? We were pleased when the most vulnerable inshore MPAs were protected from trawling and scallop dredging in 2016, and we welcome the recent designation of the West of Scotland Deep-Sea Marine Reserve but, disappointingly, progress on the remaining MPAs has been slow. Having more than 2,000 square kilometres of inshore waters off-limits to damaging fishing is welcome, but a recent study by Marine Scotland Science highlighted that this represents less than 1% of seabed swept by mobile fishing gear. We need to urgently protect all the remaining MPAs from damaging activity,


22 SCOTTISH WILDLIFE NOVEMBER 2020


Calum Duncan


Head of Conservation Scotland, Marine Conservation Society


including bottom-towed fishing gear to which the majority of sites remain exposed.


How would you like to see this network of MPAs develop further?


Our goal is that by 2030 at least 30% of Scotland’s seas are highly protected, of which at least a third is fully protected from damaging activities. These internationally recognised definitions respectively mean only light extraction (highly) and no extraction or deposition (fully), and the MPA network is a crucial component to achieving that, though not the only one. As I write, we still await several large new MPAs, while management measures for all our offshore MPAs and remaining inshore sites are urgently overdue. We also await necessary measures to protect vulnerable features beyond the MPAs.


What role can marine wildlife tourism play in helping protect our seas? It can play a vital role in helping raise awareness of our marine life and the


threats faced, provided of course that the Marine Wildlife Watching Code is adhered to. Any activity, whether wildlife watching, fishing, aquaculture or offshore energy, has a legitimate role in the socio-economic fabric of Scotland’s often fragile coastal communities, provided that they operate sustainably. In other words, they should not exceed marine environmental limits, although unfortunately many have.


Finally, what has been your most memorable experience of exploring Scotland’s coastline?


It’s hard to pick just one! Descending through clear, cold waters off the Isle of Lismore, a steep field of boulders and large cobbles resolved out of the 30-metre twilight. There, clinging to prominent corners were prehistoric Celtic featherstars (Leptometra celtica), a Priority Marine Feature related to starfish and sea urchins. What stays with me was a powerful feeling that we may have been the first people ever to visit this ancient scene.


© Marine Consevation Society


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