Lamlash Bay, Arran

http://environment.guardian.co.uk/conservation/story/0,,1981617,00.html

Scottish experiment may help turn the tide for Britain's dwindling fish stocks

Islanders' revolutionary conservation idea gathers support

Severin Carrell, Scotland correspondent
Wednesday January 3, 2007
The Guardian (c)

"Don Macneish remembers when the seas around Arran on the Firth of Clyde teemed with life. When he was a boy, cod, ling and plaice jostled with haddock and turbot, while crab, lobster and prawns crowded the seabed .... [Etc].

"...the waters of Lamlash Bay on the east coast of Arran, are now almost barren. But Lamlash bay is about to become the focus of a groundbreaking experiment in marine conservation with repercussions throughout the British Isles. Ministers in the Scottish executive have just agreed to support proposals for a unique, legally enforced fisheries protection zone off Arran.

"The proposals, which will be released this month by Scottish Natural Heritage*, the executive's conservation agency, will create a three-tiered set of controls around Lamlash Bay - a "no take zone" where all fishing will be banned; a wider "marine protected area" with strict restrictions on fishing, and an even larger "nursery" zone to rebuild scallop stocks.

*http://www.snh.org.uk/press/default.asp

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COAST: Community of Arran Seabed Trust
http://www.arrancoast.co.uk/news/pubpet.htm

Clyde Fishermen's Association
http://www.sff.co.uk/clyde.php

Brief History:
"The original records of the Association have gone amissing but folk memory suggests that it was founded in 1934 under the Chairmanship of Archibald D Macnair, JP, Provost of Campbeltown ..."