WHAT PRICE LOVE OF COUNTRY?

The proposed destruction of Scotland’s precious kelp forests in the name of capitalism is once again keeping Guy Grieve awake at night

Guy Grieve's battle for our kelp forests rages on

The Scottish Government endlessly bang on about their love of country, but when it comes to our coastline the gap between what they practice and what they preach is enormous. Under this administration an important part of our pristine wilderness is being allowed to go to wrack and ruin.

I find the disparity between the rhetoric and the reality profoundly depressing, especially as I was so impressed by the beautiful stand made last year in the Scottish parliament to block a bio technology firm’s application to be allowed free access to dredge the kelp forests in our inshore. And further back I was really proud of the manner in which Richard Lochhead guided our Marine Protected Areas into existence whilst skilfully dealing with a truly spooky alliance of scallop dredging local bully boys and their cynical cohort of vote hunting Tory outriders.

But then Lochhead was replaced by Fergus Ewing, which is where the trouble began. Ewing may be a man of impeccable Nationalist pedigree, but I see no true love of country in a minister who is quite willing to consider allowing scallop dredging in our MPAs and has done absolutely nothing to stop the endless illegal incursions into the protected marine areas.

Ewing is allowing the fabric of our inshore to be turned to rubble and reduced to its barest levels of fecundity. Such is my mistrust of his motives that I find myself wondering exactly what his role in a plan to run a kelp dredging trial next year has been.

A vast number of local businesses on the West Coast, one of which was mine, and 14,000 individuals signed a petition against kelp dredging. Mark Ruskell, Green MSP, successfully amended the Scottish Crown Estate Bill and steered parliament towards a block on progress towards a kelp licence for dredging. Scotland’s kelp forests were rightly protected as a priority marine feature. They are ecosystems in their own right, providing nursery grounds for many fish, and shelter for marine mammals, including otters and seals. There is also growing awareness of their importance as a store of blue carbon.

The kelp fringe also acts as a vital buffer against storms protecting coasts from erosion. In fact they’re even planting plastic – yes, plastic – kelp-like structures off the coast of California to dissipate wave action now that they’ve ripped up all of their kelp. I think the real stuff is better!

We are blessed to have our shallows fringed by the pure wilderness of our kelp forest zone. I swim through kelp forests most days and their beauty and richness of biodiversity never fails to humble me. The kelp is also, generally, untouched by the dredging due to the fact that kelp needs rock to anchor itself and, as such, the scallopers can’t always get their gear into the kelpy areas. So it’s a pure wilderness zone in every sense of the word.

Yet here we are again, just one year later, fighting for the kelp. I’m not surprised as I understand that to fight for the environment is to accept the purgatory of an endless swim against the tide of man’s greed. This time the profit motive belongs to a chemical company planning to use kelp to make antacid medication.

They’re not giving up and have hired – sigh – a PR company to lobby parliament. So we’re back in the unhappy position of having to beg our representatives to see past the short termism and truly understand that protecting our kelp forests is not to ‘ignore’ a potential resource. Far from it: by protecting our kelp wilderness we are ensuring that we have money in the bank forever; that a great natural asset belongs to Scotland and its people and is not simply given away to a private company.

The hypocrisy of it all is stunning – we’re planting trees on land yet are looking seriously at ripping up forests underwater. And then I remembered that 2020, when the kelp dredging trial is due to start, is the ‘Year of Coasts and Waters’. It’s time for some Gaviscon.

“We are blessed to have our shallows fringed by pure wilderness