Change is on the way

Even the terns are in favour - channel marker at Arisaig

It may sound strange, but if all we wanted from our voyage was to view marine life, we might well just have stayed in home waters. Despite the centuries of intensive fisheries, whaling and the industrialization of the seas around Britain and Ireland, our waters still host an impressive range of species. Over the last twenty years I have seen more than a dozen different species of cetacean, well over a thousand basking sharks and ten leatherback turtles, without even considering the extraordinary range of bird life that rely on our seas for their living.

So by way of a last, lingering farewell to my favourite place of all, our first season was spent going North, to the western isles of Scotland. As anyone who has spent time there will know, it’s a place where you have to seize the moment – before the weather turns against you. We struck lucky though, with ideal (if windy) weather, and saw plenty of sharks, although minke whales, that used to be so numerous were once again in very short supply. During my time (since the early nineties) working on surveys in the area, there have been some fairly seismic changes in the pattern of distribution and abundance of a number of species, perhaps due to changing patterns of food availability from plankton upwards associated with climate change.

And it’s not just ‘charismatic megafauna’ either that has suffered – the once vibrant white fish fleet has all but disappeared, reducing income and employment in many remote communities. The growing enthusiasm for wild places and marine wildlife has driven a major expansion of ecotourism throughout the region, helping to redress that balance, but equally, ecotourism itself depends on healthy stocks of fish to support wildlife. So fishermen and conservationists both have a stake in this, and it’s to be hoped that as this becomes clearer, both sides will recognise the potential benefits that MPA’s can offer, and see the regeneration of fish stocks as a key factor in safeguarding the future of this wonderful wild place, for everyone’s benefit.