The Scottish Creel Fishermen’s Federation have a report sent to the Cabinet Secretary Fergus Ewing in May 2017 which outlines the case for better spatial management and even a modernised return of the 3 Mile Limit. Their report can be downloaded here: http://www.scottishcreelfishermensfederation.co.uk/report.htm The aim of all fisheries management is to maintain a rich fishery
An Underwater Ecosystem & Flowers of the Sea Forest
To view the stunningly beautiful world beneath the waves as shown in the film below enter the password sea cucumber (music not yet cleared) The film shares the findings from Sea Change’s June 2018 Sea bed survey working with SCFF, SubSea.tv and many many others, as the story shows) John McIntyre found a wonderful quote from 1376 complaining about chains
Drowning in Plastic
An Artist’s Four-Year Journey Through Scotland’s Marine Plastic To Holyrood’s MSPs. Before becoming a sculptor and installation artist, Julia Barton studied geography but it was her search for seaweed to study which took her to the remote Coigach peninsula. It was here in Wester Ross that she found herself on a local beach knee deep
Year One: march 2016-2017 Our MPA’s first year: small choices and simple actions, every day.
Cousteau made the oceans rock’n’roll! He made marine exploration exciting, cool and fun. That has to be our number one aim for 2017 as we embark on our second year of the Marine Protected Area and hopefully more sea bed surveys to start to build a picture and map our MPA. However it goes beyond that.
The Lost Birds of The Summer Isles
In his book ‘Island Years’[i] Frank Fraser Darling the ecologist and ornithologist recalls his life on The Summer Isles where in 1936 he counted and studied the birds he found there. He describes what he calls ‘the noise and abandon with it all, for the sea birds express their emotions with great intensity, and the
Shifting Baselines
The Ocean as it was a thousand years ago. My father told me how rich the sea was when he line fished from an open boat – the wonder he described seemed marvellous to me. He had studied marine biology so I spent my childhood in and on the water (mostly in it) looking for the
Seasearch & Dives of Discovery in the Summer Isles Archipelago (2017)
On March 23rd 2017, Wester Ross Marine Protected Area will have it’s first birthday! The network of MPAs are an historic turning point in Scotland – representing hope for our fragile blue planet, at least in this small corner of the world. Yet our ocean ecosystem is still under threat and the question Sea Change grapples with is
Scallop Divers are our Eyes
Please read an email written by a Highland scallop diver back in 2015 before the creation of Wester Ross Marine Protected Area. This is an eye witness account of the impact of dredgers in inshore waters as seen from a fishermen’s first hand account. The situation has moved on since then as Richard Lochhead, the former Minister responsible for MPAs, banned dredgers from Wester
More Jacques Cousteau’s please!
“The sea, the great unifier, is man’s only hope. Now, as never before, the old phrase has a literal meaning: we are all in the same boat.” Jacques Yves Cousteau, Oceanographer Cousteau’s TV series enthralled me as a child – so for those who share my nostalgia and would like to re-live the excitement of discovery on
The Accidental Environmentalist
Beatrice Brinkler would never have described herself as an environmentalist. She first starting looking after sick and injured animals over 30 years ago but she didn’t plan to set up The Highland Wildlife Hospital Trust and I doubt if she would have seen herself holding a banner in support of Marine Protection Areas at Holyrood