The Community of Arran Seabed Trust (COAST) has gained the support of MSP and Enterprise Minister Allan Wilson in their fight to establish a Marine Protected Area in Lamlash Bay.
Mr Wilson met with his colleague Environment Minister Lewis MacDonald in Edinburgh to discuss Arran COAST's newly published proposals for restrictions in Lamlash Bay.
"COAST's latest proposals are much more structured and professional than their predecessor and represent a substantial and serious contribution to emerging issues on better coastal management" said Mr Wilson.
"Consequently I was anxious that they be considered not simply in the context of a local community pressure group interested only in their own backyard, important as that is, but that they also be looked at as a microcosm of some of the challenges facing the various interest, public and private, charged with developing a marine environment strategy and coastal national park."
"It was very important therefore that they were considered by Departmental officials from the Environment Group as well as the Fisheries Division as they can inform not only the development of the Scottish executive's Inshore Fisheries policy but also wider strategic thing on coastal zonal management" said Mr Wilson.
" I am pleased, therefore, that it was agreed that officials from both Executive Departments should meet with COAST to discuss their latest proposals and that that meeting should take place, appropriately, on the island"
"It is vitally important that all concerned with the better management of our marine resource should take on board community and environmental considerations as well as the interests of the fishing community. I hope therefore that this meeting will be the first stage in a partnership approach to better coastal management that will bear fruit for future generations" concluded Mr Wilson.
COAST is a representative local organisation which recently published plans for the establishment of a ‘no-take zone’ centred on Lamlash Bay. The proposal is for a marine generation trial through development of a community- based marine protected area. The organisation believes there are sound ecological and economic arguments for restricting fishing activity in Lamlash Bay and proposes to:
Develop and test a community-led approach to marine conservation, through consultation with a range of local stakeholders, that can inform similar efforts elsewhere in Britain, specifically by:
a) establishing a No Take Zone in the vicinity of Clauchlands to protect maerl beds;
b) making Lamlash Bay a Marine Protected Area - closed to mobile fishing gear - to regenerate and enhance local fish and shellfish populations, scallops in particular;
c) investigating the fishery benefits of the No Take Zone and Marine Protected Area, particularly with regard to commercial invertebrate species; retaining the status quo outside Lamlash Bay.
Undertake baseline biological surveys against which to assess affects of protection, in collaboration with national initiatives such as Seasearch and local expertise, such as the University Marine Biological Station Millport; Establish the local and national conservation significance of Lamlash Bay.