Arran MPA incursions criticised by conservation group Oceana
Oceana, a US-based, oceanic conservation group, has criticised government inaction on protecting Scotland’s Marine Protected Areas (MPA) after an analysis revealed the south Arran MPA had 2,295 fishing hours taking place in its protected waters last year.
Oceana analysed 93 Scottish MPAs with the data showing more than 44,000 hours of fishing with bottom-towed gear in Scotland’s MPA network in 2020.
Describing the protected status of MPAs as little more than ‘mere lines on a map’, Oceana singled out the south Arran MPA as being ‘intensely disturbed’ despite it being designated to protect ocean quahog, kelp and seagrass beds, maerl beds and burrowing bivalve.
The analysis also revealed that all but two of Scotland’s 24 offshore benthic MPAs were damaged by bottom-towed fishing gear in 2020.
Melissa Moore, head of UK policy at Oceana, said: ‘We are calling on Scottish Ministers to take urgent action to ban bottom-towed fishing gear in all of Scotland’s Marine Protected Areas and reinstate the three nautical mile inshore trawl and dredge ban.
‘As well as being destructive, continued licensing of this activity is illegal under marine wildlife laws. Scotland needs to step up and protect its rich and diverse marine life. These damaging fishing methods also have a devastating impact on blue carbon habitats and ruin the fishing grounds of low-impact fishermen such as creelers.’
Oceana, founded in 2001, is the largest international advocacy organisation focused solely on ocean conservation. It seeks to make oceans more biodiverse and abundant by winning policy victories in the countries that govern much of the world’s marine life.