Scottish Islands Explorer 41: Jan / Feb 2017

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New Marine Protected Area in Wester Ross New Marine Protected Area in Wester Ross Lizzie Williams celebrates initiatives, but is cautious about implementation The kayak offers a perfect vantage point to view the water. As I glide off from the shore, all seems shades of brown: kelp, wrack and mud. Yet it is still above the perpetually yet unhurriedly moving water, and there’s a pearlescent periwinkle in the arms of a kelp forest, a bundle of sea hares in a hermaphroditic embrace, an iridescent comb jelly going nowhere. Our destination on this midsummer evening is the one Summer Isle I have never visited: Càrn nan Sgeir, about 4.5 miles from the shore below our home in Achiltibuie and about a third of a square mile in area, rising to only 92’ above sea level. It looks so vulnerable out there, exposed to the wild south west, that I sometimes wonder why it hasn’t been washed away. As we paddle out from Acheninver we pass Horse Island - a regular otter spot. Today, instead of that splashy delight, there’s a coarse screech above me and I look up to a single Arctic tern - its nubile white body with sleek black cap and looping, nonchalant wing-beat. en come pairs, and as we near Càrn nan Sgeir the sky is a-frantic-chatter with them, hovering, swooping, plucking prey from just beneath the water’s surface. Quietly Circumnavigate I have been wondering for years if terns are breeding in the Summer Isles - and here they are, dozens of pairs on the shingle isthmus between the Island’s two rocky bulbs. Like the Manx shearwater and Storm petrel which breed on neighbouring islands, Arctic terns have an ‘amber’ (‘unfavourable’) conservation status and are easily disturbed, so we decide not to land and instead quietly circumnavigate the tiny island. Pink Torridonian sandstone cliffs are topped with clouds of bird’s-foot-trefoil. en there is a cautious encounter with a common seal and a pair of porpoise passing shyly by - heavenly! And there’s good news, the seabed beneath us is safe at last from the worst ravages of modern fishing. e ‘Wester Ross Marine Protected Area’ (WRMPA) - encompassing the waters around the Summer Isles stretching south to Loch Ewe - was declared in July 2014, but only in March 2016 did the Scottish Government agree that ‘Protection’ should mean significant restrictions on destructive bottom-towed fishing gear. Destroying Habitat ‘Bottom-towed fishing gear’ here includes trawling for beautiful big pink prawns (‘langoustine’) and dredging for scallops. A dredger is a heavy rake towed along the sea bed pulling up scallops, ploughing up habitat in its wake. It produces cheap scallops, but at what wider environmental cost? It is, arguably, a preposterous way to take food from the sea and it provides no local jobs. Establishing Marine Protected Areas in Scotland has been a long process. A decade of campaigning by environmental groups led to the 2010 Marine (Scotland) Act, requiring Scottish Ministers to, among other things, designate a network of Nature Conservation MPAs providing protection for important marine habitats, wildlife and geology, while permitting ‘sustainable economic activity’. e basic premise of an MPA is that, if a patch of sea is given a rest from destructive fishing, it will start to recover and this rebounding life will spill over into the surrounding seas. As well as being crucial for nature’s sake, it is of course socioeconomically important - for instance, enabling sustainable jobs in wildlife tourism and low-impact fishing such as static gear (prawn creels), hand diving, and angling. 20 SCOTTISH ISLANDS EXPLORER JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2017
‘As well as being crucial for nature’s sake, it is of course socio-economically important ...’
Page 1 and 2: SCOTTISH ISLANDS THE UK’S ONLY MA
Page 3 and 4: Gallery of Rust Page 36 Scottish Se
Page 5 and 6: VISION FOR 2020 ‘Challenge Ordina
Page 7 and 8: INSIGHTS Page Index Header Shipping
Page 9 and 10: Scottish Seabird Islands - Part One
Page 11 and 12: Scottish Seabird Islands - Part One
Page 13 and 14: House on the Point - Ullapool House
Page 15 and 16: ISLANDS BEYOND Island of and Iceber
Page 17 and 18: ‘Archaeologists believe that the
Page 19: ‘A Good Enough Day’ e archaeolo
Page 23 and 24: New Marine Protected Area in Wester
Page 25 and 26: READERS’ OPPORTUNITIES Page Index
Page 27 and 28: Golden eagle in flight during winte
Page 29 and 30: The Atlantic Grey Seal ‘Grey seal
Page 31 and 32: distances of over 200 miles. Man ha
Page 33 and 34: A History of Lismore A History of L
Page 35 and 36: A History of Lismore Roman Catholic
Page 37 and 38: JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2017 SCOTTISH IS
Page 39 and 40: A Gallery of Rust next to a redunda
Page 41 and 42: Apostle of Land Reform The Crofters
Page 43 and 44: A Short Hop to Papa A Short Hop to
Page 45 and 46: A Short Hop to Papa Flying Time Fro
Page 48 and 49: RESPONSES Responses The west coast
Page 50 and 51: ISLAND INCIDENTS Mike Heslop wonder
Page 52: £60 Richard Kershaw www.nake

Scottish Islands Explorer 41: Jan / Feb 2017

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