Undersea wilderness ‘lost’ in Scotland’s coastal waters, conservationists warn

Scotland’s coastal waters have “lost” their undersea wilderness, local conservationists have warned.

Nature restoration projects across Scotland’s Highlands and islands are responding to years of unsustainable fishing practices and other human-driven impacts.

Seawilding, a charity based in Ardfern on the west coast is developing methods to restore seagrass beds and native European oyster populations, which create structure on the seabed that provides habitats to other species, captures carbon and filters seawater.

Seagrass in Loch Craignish, where charity Seawilding is carrying out restoration work (European Nature Trust/Gethin Chamberlain/PA) PA Media

These species have suffered big declines in UK coastal waters following decades of industrial fishing practices, dredging, pollution, sea temperature rise, and even clearance for beach swimmers.

Philip Price, communications outreach officer at Seawilding, said the sea is “empty” compared to what there likely was 40 years ago.

“It would have been like the ancient forests covering Scotland. It would have been that level of wilderness under the sea,” he said.

“I think that’s the thing you realise really quickly when you start working underwater. We’ve lost the wilderness undersea. It’s gone.

“It’s a very flat monoculture now and that’s as a result of pollution.”

Seawilding is currently trialling different methods that could help to re-establish self-sustaining seagrass beds and oyster populations but is yet to cement a process that can be scaled.

“We’re working in a really new sphere of restoration and we haven’t cracked it yet,” Mr Price said.

Challenges have included low survival rates, adverse weather conditions, and a recent dry-up in the supply of baby oysters, which has stalled the work at a time when the conservationists need to be reintroducing up to a million a year to make a difference.

“That has to be the end game,” Mr Price said. “It’s an imbalanced ecosystem. You haven’t got all your things in place that protect these oysters yet – like your high levels of predation on the predators or your complex reef structure that protects them so that’s all got to take time – so you’ve got to be ambitious.”