Since our last update on 19th April 2004 there has been much activity. I show below a summary of the items we have covered in the last four months.
The AGM was successful with excellent talks from both David Donan and Julia Macpherson. It’s good to see the support we are getting from Scottish Natural Heritage and the Clyde Forum, I’m sure this help will become very important in future months.
On 10th May we entertained Mark Carter and David Ainsley from the Hebridian Partnership. It was good to talk over similar issues and problems. It has made us realise that it is important to get all like minded people together for a ‘gathering’ [hate the concept of a conference!], so we will be looking for some funding . If we can get a combined approach it will make us much stronger. Hebridean Partnership can be found on www.marinereserve.org.uk .
Richard Stanford is somebody else we have been talking to. Richard is running a project down in Lyme Bay and is in the early stages of developing a scallop reseeding project as an incentive for local fishermen to give up another protected area. Richard can be contacted at rstanford@devonwt.ci.co.uk
We met Elspeth Attwooll MEP when she visited Arran in May. Elspeth has proved to be a good ally of ours. She has already asked Ross Finnie MSP & Minister for Environment and Rural Affairs, questions about our project and shared her reply with us. Ross Finnie has again stated that he believes “it appropriate to expect such a local initiative to be endorsed by all key parties involved, including the fishermen”.
Local Arran fishermen and the Clyde Static Gear Association endorse the proposals. We feel this is much more than 50% of fishermen in the Clyde. It is only a small minority of the mobile sector that are blocking the local community’s aspirations.
We are asking “Who manages Inshore Fisheries?” Management involves taking decisions. Any party should be able to put their case to the decision makers in a fair and open way, however, the decision makers need not agree with them. You cannot allow one small part of the people [who also have a financial interest] to hold to ransom the rest of the people, particularly when the resource is a common one. We are now asking what would happen if scallop dredgers wanted to change their present fishing methods or boats, would they expect it to ‘have it endorsed by all key parties, including the local communities’?
Where you have an area of sea which is integral to the local community [as Lamlash Bay is to the community of Lamlash] it can hardly be expected that fishermen from the mainland some 40 miles away should be given the veto to how the area of sea is managed over the activities of local people, particularly when those same fishermen are engaged in possibly the most destructive form of activity imaginable, with respect to the seabed, also, highly destructive to species such as maerl, which is protected under the Habitats Regulations.
No mention has been made by Ross Finnie of the duty of the state to protect the common property of the Scottish people. At no stage has the community ever been properly consulted, nor can we see anything in the behaviour of the dredgers which recognises their duty to anyone else.
These are important points that we will be pursuing through our political representatives in the coming months.
We got into lengthy correspondence with the Admiralty. They complained that the chart of Lamlash Bay we were using on our web site could be used for navigation purposes. We changed it for them.
We have been in correspondence with the people who sunk the ex RN boat in Whitsand Bay, Plymouth, to look at the possibilities of doing something similar, but smaller, in Lamlash Bay. There are many things to take into consideration before embarking on this.
In May COAST members were invited by LINK to attend the debate in the Scottish Parliament on the Sustainable Management of Scotland’s Marine Environment. This was of great interest to us. It was good to hear first hand what the MSPs were saying about the future management of the seas. It was a shame that they all seemed to be agreeing with each other in the debate then they came to the vote at the end when they all voted on party lines. COAST and the work we are doing got a mention during the debate.
COAST has taken part in the consultation process for ‘A Strategic Framework to Scotland’s Marine Environment. We made our point strongly, that local communities MUST have a say in the future management of the marine environment. Our input will be able to be seen on the Scottish Executive web site when they publish it.
In June COAST entertained International Representatives from the WWF here on Arran. 30 people from all over the North Atlantic Area spent 3 days on Arran at a workshop. We had them for one of the days. We took them out in the Bay in a rib provided by Arran Adventure, gave them a presentation on our project and showed them our BBC2 television programme that was shown last February. We gave them dinner in Claveron’s garden on a sunny day. It really was a highly successful day. We made many good friends and contacts. Letters of thanks, good wishes and delight were received after they went home.
In June two members of COAST attended the Clyde Forum in Helensborough. Again, these events are a chance to meet and talk to people with similar ideas as us [I suppose some call it ‘networking’] but most importantly it gets our project heard by influential people.
In June, COAST members assisted the Millport Marine Biology Station to collect core samples from the seabed. These were used back at the Station for analysis. The ‘Millport’ boat, R.V. Aora spent two days undertaking a side scan sonar survey of the whole Bay. This was part of the Esmee Fairbairn Trust’s ongoing funding project.
During June, July and August COAST have been vigorously trying to get Scottish Water to change their plans for the outfall pipe in Lamlash’s new sewerage scheme. Scottish Water wanted it to come up right in the middle of our No Take Zone and where maerl is present. It has been a long and exhaustive process involving North Ayrshire Council, SEPA, SNH, our Local Community Council and our powers of persuasions, using underwater photography and local knowledge. The Seasearch Scheme, which our members have been using to record and chart the marine life in Lamlash Bay, turned out to be the crucial evidence used by SNH to persuade Scottish Water to have a scientific survey undertaken by the Marine Biology Station at Millport.
Just last week [August 10th] we heard that we won the day. The outfall pipe will now come up well outside the Bay beyond Hamilton Rock. If only Scottish Water had listened to us when they first suggested their plans, considerable amounts of their [our?] money would have been saved.
In May and again in July we had an exchange of correspondence with HRH Prince Charles, The Prince of Wales. He has shown interest in our project and has asked us to keep him in touch with what we are doing. He has now seen a copy of our television programme.
Over the months we had correspondence with and kept in touch with both, the Clyde Fishermen’s Association and The Clyde and South West Static Gear Association, along with the local fishermen. We will keep talking to all fishermen. It appears that the only real opposition to our scheme comes from the two boats that come into the Bay to scallop dredge.
We contacted Gabby Pieracini at The Scottish Executive on July 7th asking her to respond to the 11th April letter. We also asked her to advise us on the future direction of our project and suggesting a meeting with all parties involved. By 15th August we have had no reply. We will take the issues up with Allan Wilson MSP, who has agreed to see us by the end of August.
The well known Daily Telegraph environmental journalist, Charles Clover had a book published ‘on the management of the marine environment’, in July. The book called “The End of the Line” is proving to be an important reference book on environmental marine matters and has had considerable media interest. Charles included a small chapter on the work we are doing on Arran and followed it up with a half page article on us in The Daily Telegraph, giving us considerable exposure. We recommend the reading of this book.
Following on from the exposure that Charles Clover gave us we had considerable media interest. Articles were written in The Glasgow Herald, The Big Issue [2, one page articles], many articles in the Arran Banner, a one page article in the new magazine North Ayrshire West Zone and the Saltcoats and Ardrossan Herald. We were also interviewed for the local commercial radio station news programme. The radio station has said they will come to the island and do a programme based on our project, we will follow this up.
The fight to be recognised properly by North Ayrshire Council in Arran’s 10 year Local Plan continued. Two of our members appeared in front of a full Council meeting. Councillors and Council Officers knew little, if anything, about the COAST project. The feedback after the meeting was that individually, those present were much impressed with what we were doing, BUT we were unable to change the Council policy and our entry in the Local Plan remains the same. However, it was felt that the process we went through was worth it, just to get the extra exposure. One day North Ayrshire Council WILL, we hope, some day, give us some real support for what we are trying to do, after all, they do ‘crow’ about the support and funding they give to community led environmental schemes on land.
We keep up ongoing correspondence with SEPA [Scottish Environmental Protection Agency]. We are not sure exactly who SEPA are acting for in marine environmental matters. It doesn’t appear to be the Scottish people. They are very cautious about any issue that are bought up with them and tend to be very defensive. Their position tends to back up ‘the bureaucracy’ and not ‘the environmentalists’ [perhaps this is something to do with their funding, which is of course from central government?]. They tell us they have no power to make Scottish Water improve the Arran sewerage system by ensuring all private outfall pipes are included in the scheme. We will continue to press them about the whole of Lamlash Bay becoming a ‘Recreational Zone’ and asking them why there is no Environmental Impact Assessment for the Bay. These issues could be important if or when any future development of the Bay comes up.
During August COAST have been in correspondence with Robin Harper MSP, of the Green Party. He has become very interested in our project. He has said that he will “put down a motion in the Scottish Parliament on our behalf”. We are not sure what this means yet, but will watch the developments with interest. Robin has been on the ‘phone to us and given us good advise on how to contact the MSPs who represent Arran and how to ‘lobby’ them.
Our video ‘Underwater Arran’ is being shown on the boat between Brodick and Ardrossan. This is yet more good exposure for our project.
The divers within COAST will continue to undertake Seasearch Surveys both in the Bay and around the south and west coasts of the island. We have realised that these surveys are becoming an important part of our campaign to have these sea beds recognised as important to the regeneration of marine life.
We have taken opportunity of increasing our membership and Tony Allen has put in a lot of effort on our behalf. The membership now stands at 1205 and increasing daily.
COAST committee members met with two MSPs this month. Eleanor Scott, leader of the Green Party and Rob Gibson of the SNP. They spent 3 hours with us, giving us advice and support on taking on COAST’s concerns on how we make an impact on the politicians. We are actively using their advice to look into possibility of making a ‘Petition’ to the Scottish Parliament.
Tom Appleby, lawyer and our legal advisor is looking into the possibilities of taking legal action against those who are allowing the maerl beds in Lamlash Bay to be destroyed. This could be a long process but support could come from Greenpeace, who we are talking to.
Howard and Tom gave a 2 hour presentation to Arran’s Garden Club .It was very well received and the question and answer session afterwards [which had to be curtailed] proves that there is a real interest by the folk of Arran. These Presentations to local community organisations and school children are an important part of spreading our message, also important for us to listen to their concerns, which are mainly about the lack of fish and how close the fishing boats dredge to the shoreline. We find that afterwards all those present join the COAST membership.
You will note that there has been a lot going on in the last few months. Please help the committee in any way you can to progress this important project.