The Sunday Post (Inverness)

Islanders and scientists hail pioneering no-catch zone after a huge recovery in coastal waters

Contested documentar­y warns of an ocean apocalypse as depleted seas recover in island’s pioneering no-fishing zone

- By Megan Mceachern mmceachern@sundaypost.com

Seaspiracy’s warning that commercial over-fishing will empty the world’s oceans within decades has sparked concern and calls for action around the world.

As the world wakes up to the peril at sea a small, marine conservati­on organisati­on on the Isle of Arran is showing what can be done with correct management and protection of our waters.

Scotland’s first and only permanent full No Take Zone (NTZ) – areas where all fishing is banned – was establishe­d by the Scottish Government in 2008 after years of campaignin­g by the Community of Arran Seabed Trust.

Today, the recovery of the sea surroundin­g the island – where some species’ population has risen by 400% – shows, according to supporters, how the world’s oceans, if protected, can recover from over-fishing, trawling and the collapse of reefs.

The trust was created in 1995 by two scuba divers, Howard Wood and Don Macneish, who witnessed first-hand the destructio­n of the Firth of Clyde fisheries, which once had been abundant in herring, cod, turbot and haddock.

Until the 1980s, local communitie­s were able to fish sustainabl­y, thanks to long-standing laws banning practices that towed destructiv­e fishing apparatus along the seabed.

“Growing internatio­nal demand for seafood and sustained lobbying by powerful commercial fishing interests in the 1980s led the British Government to repeal various seabed protection measures,” said Jenny Stark of the trust.

“Coupled with technologi­cal advances in fishing, the new industry-friendly policies opened up the Firth of Clyde to the more destructiv­e fishing practices. Fisheries quickly collapsed, and the industry moved on to exploit what little remained of marine resources in the area: scallops and prawns. The commercial fishing industry began ploughing through the seabed with scallop dredges, repeatedly passing over the same area to maximise their catch. They damaged the seafloor and maimed coral and kelp forests – vital nursery grounds for fish and shellfish – crippling the habitat necessary for a healthy marine ecosystem.”

Stark said a study by York University showed numbers of some species had increased by nearly 400% in the NTZ sitting within a 175-squaremile Marine Protected Area in Lamlash Bay. This was establishe­d in 2014, with fisheries management measures – promoting sustainabl­e fishing – implemente­d two years later.

She said: “There are nearly four times more king scallops in the NTZ since research began in 2010, and legal-sized lobster numbers are four times higher in the NTZ than adjacent areas.”

But what is it like beneath the surface in areas around the rest of Scotland?

“In short, Scotland’s seas are in a dire state,” said Stark.

“Native oyster reefs around Scotland are now completely extinct and whitefish and herring stocks have crashed to commercial extinction.

“According to the Scottish Marine Assessment 2020, 11 ‘key’ fish stocks were assessed in 2018 – of these, five are overfished and, in every region studied, losses of biogenic reef were reported.

“Argyll lost 53% of its flame shell reefs. The Clyde lost 9% as well as 10% of its maerl beds in the past decade. The Outer

Hebrides lost 27% of their seagrass and 58 hectares of serpulid reefs have gone, about 50% of their total range. “There are a huge range of pressures on our seas – climate change, pollution, overfishin­g – but one of the fundamenta­l problems is chronic damage to the seabed.”

Callum Roberts, a marine conservati­onist at Exeter University, has equated scallop dredging to “cutting down a rainforest to catch a parrot”. Roberts is featured in Seaspiracy, and the film claims that bottom trawlers wipe out

3.9 billion acres of the seabed per year, and an area the combined size of 15 countries including huge masses like Australia, Greenland and Mexico has already been destroyed. The film also makes the claim that, at current fishing rates, our seas will essentiall­y be empty by 2048. Yet this assertion and others presented have been criticised by some marine biologists, who have said the documentar­y is a simplistic portrayal of a complex industry and poses a misreprese­ntation of facts.

Professor Paul G Fernandes, chair in fisheries science at Aberdeen University, said: “The film expresses some valid concerns in relation to fisheries in developing countries, shark finning, and human rights abuses; but it is way off the mark in its evaluation of the activity in developed countries where drastic improvemen­ts have been made in the 21st Century. “Not acknowledg­ing the huge efforts that have gone into making fishing sustainabl­e in the north Atlantic and north Pacific is disingenuo­us at best, if not downright devious.”

Meanwhile, the Arran trust, working with Fauna and Flora Internatio­nal, has assisted another 15 community groups around the coast of Scotland to improve the protection of their own local waters.

MSP Kenneth Gibson said: “The community on Arran should be very proud of their achievemen­ts over the last decade to promote marine conservati­on.

“The study by the University of York proves the potential of effective marine management and I will be pressing the Scottish Government to seriously consider the creation of more NTZS as part of their marine management plans.”

 ??  ?? Diver Howard Wood and support team check progress in Arran’s No Take Zone, and the Seaspiracy logo, inset, top left
Diver Howard Wood and support team check progress in Arran’s No Take Zone, and the Seaspiracy logo, inset, top left
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 ??  ?? The seabed is now thriving off the coast of Arran
The seabed is now thriving off the coast of Arran
 ??  ?? Diver and Arran Seabed Trust founder Howard Wood
Diver and Arran Seabed Trust founder Howard Wood

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