Inside Environment

New marine conservation sites will benefit more than sharks, writes Ilona Amos

Back in 2014, the Scottish Government designated a network of 30 marine protected areas (MPAS) for conservation of nature. Their purpose is to safeguard some of the country’s most vulnerable species, habitats and geological features. Emergency legislation saw a further site added last year after a rare flame shell reef near the west Highland village where I grew up was damaged by totally legal scallop dredging.

Work is still ongoing to hammer out a raft of management measures designed to best look after these irreplaceable natural gems, such as outlawing the most damaging fishing techniques in certain highly sensitive places.

These recently created MPAS complement a raft of special protected areas, special areas of conservation and sites of special scientific interest, which together cover about a fifth of Scotland’s seas.

We are lucky enough to have around 6,500 weird and wonderful marine species, but many are declining due to pressures from climate change and human activities. So it’s great news to hear a further four proposed MPAS are to move forward for consideration. And if they make it to designation, they will be the first in the world set out for the protection of basking sharks, Risso’s dolphins and minke whales – some of our best loved and most threatened ocean giants.

The sites – Sea of the Hebrides, Shiant East Bank, North-east Lewis and Southern Trench – were identified by Scottish Natural Heritage way back in 2012, but progress had stalled. Now Scottish Finance Secretary Derek Mackay has agreed to invest an extra £200,000 in the new budget to push the proposals forward and speed up the process by a year. The announcement, which came after pressure from the Scottish Greens, could see the four new MPAS come into force later this year.

Estimates suggest Scottish basking shark populations have decreased by 80 per cent since the 1950s. This is partly due to the impact of commercial fishing – the oil in their huge livers was highly prized – but also because they can become entangled in fishing nets and are easily disturbed by jet-skis, speedboats and other vessels because they swim near the surface. As a result, the species has been officially named as endangered on the IUCN Red List and of conservation importance in Scottish and wider UK waters.

Most minke whales are seasonal visitors, feeding in our rich coastal waters through to autumn. Risso’s dolphins can be found here all year round, particularly off the Isle of Lewis.

Although whales, dolphins and porpoises are strictly protected under European law, MPAS can help protect areas containing significant numbers of creatures or are essential to key stages in their life cycles such as feeding, mating and giving birth.

The latest measures should have wideranging benefits, not just for our marine environment, but for Scottish society more widely. There are all sorts of potential positive knock-on effects – for the burgeoning wildlife tourism industry, for instance.

I’ve not yet been lucky enough to see a basking shark, but Scotland is a global hotspot for the second-biggest fish in the sea. Growing up to 10m long, they can be spotted in summer as they cruise along with their huge mouths open, sifting for plankton. And visitors come from all over the world to watch minke whales, with more than 51,000 people taking part in whalewatching tours off the west coast in 2015.