Marine Protection Areas, Scotland

[DaveS]

There has been a fair bit of discussion in ToP of the English equivalents, particularly regarding Studland Bay. Little seems to have been aired yet about any possible Scottish "no anchoring" areas, although one conservation group did have a website listing places like Upper Loch Torridon as potential candidates. (One reason why I made a point of exploring its anchorages this summer, before thare are any "issues".) Considerations appear to be ongoing with proposals not ready yet, but I thought that a few links might be useful for keeping an eye on.

This RYA page gives a commendably brief outline of the position: http://www.rya.org.uk/infoadvice/planni ... tland.aspx and contains the starting points for other useful links, e.g. this: http://www.snh.gov.uk/docs/B874876.pdf is the draft list of "marine features" to be protected. This sets out the selection methodology: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/marin ... guidelines and this: http://www.snh.gov.uk/__mpa/ shows "simulated dives" at various locations in Loch Sunart / Loch Teacuis.

We do not know yet what, if any, effect this will have on sailing. The worry is that announcements are likely to be made late autumn this year with a consultation deadline of the year end. There may be lots to do in very little time, so I thought it might be worthwhile to become familiar with as much of the background as possible in advance.

[ubergeekian]

There has been a fair bit of discussion in ToP of the English equivalents, particularly regarding Studland Bay. Little seems to have been aired yet about any possible Scottish "no anchoring" areas, although one conservation group did have a website listing places like Upper Loch Torridon as potential candidates.

I'm sure I've seen one suggested for somewhere up Caol Scotnish. A mussel bed, or some such?

[DaveS]

There has been a fair bit of discussion in ToP of the English equivalents, particularly regarding Studland Bay. Little seems to have been aired yet about any possible Scottish "no anchoring" areas, although one conservation group did have a website listing places like Upper Loch Torridon as potential candidates.

I'm sure I've seen one suggested for somewhere up Caol Scotnish. A mussel bed, or some such?

Yes, it's on the Marine Conservation Society's site, here: http://www.yourseasyourvoice.com/mpa/?region=9

There was some discussion of it on here earlier: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=6008

Having now read a bit more about how the process works, it would appear that diving conservationists only need to take pictures of something listed as a "marine feature" for the site to be seriously considered for designation. See the MCS's comments about the Western Isles. The Scottish coastline is very long and it'll take them years to cover it all, but the "features" list is so extensive that I would expect one or more to be present almost anywhere looked at. Whether or not designation will cause us problems we've yet to find out, and RYA Scotland is involved so that's something at least.

We already have a few "no anchoring" areas, but a proliferation of them would completely alter Scottish cruising as we know it. The tone of the notice at the entrance to Loch Creran sets a worrying precedent: effectively saying all anchoring in the loch is prohibited except at the following places... I can't remember any effective consultation on this, but perhaps others have better recall.

[ubergeekian]

Thanks - that's the site I saw. It would help if they said what sort of protection they envisage/suggest for each area. I doubt it all the yachts in Scotland could do in a year as much damage as a scallop dredger can do in an hour. The situation in Studland seems to be exacerbated by (a) very heavy usage and consequent sewage pollution and (b) commercial diving interests who would like to see access restricted to their paying clients.