Proud to be Members of the Our Seas Coalition

After many years of supporting the Our Seas Coalition and its ethos, we are very excited to announce that Seaful has joined as an official member. This means we are lending our voices to those of many others calling for more sustainable management of Scotland’s fisheries and coastal environments. 

What is the Our Seas Coalition?

Our Seas Coalition is an alliance of Scottish organisations, charities, businesses, communities and individuals who all want to see Scotland’s ocean environments to be protected as a common resource that is managed for the benefit of the many, not the few. 

The main action the coalition is calling for is the reinstatement of a modern coastal limit on bottom-towed fisheries, in other words restricting trawling and dredging in inshore areas. 

This is important because for the last 40+ years, damaging fishing practices have been allowed within three miles of Scotland’s shoreline and this has devastated ecosystems. The Thatcher government removed the inshore limit on trawling under pressure from the industry in the 1980s, but it has caused serious damage and change is desperately needed. 

We discussed this with Ailsa Mclellan, a marine scientist and ocean campaigner living in the Northwest Highlands of Scotland on the Our Ocean Podcast, where you can listen to our full discussion.

Ailsa told us the current way of managing Scotland’s fisheries isn’t working. The number of fishermen in the country is falling dramatically. “Whatever’s happening isn’t working for fishermen or the environment,” she said. “There’s no logical case for a lack of movement on this issue. Let’s change the way we approach conservation for the sake of fish stocks.”

The concept of co-management is important because our oceans aren’t reserved for just one group of people.

“Legally, the seabed and all the fish in it are to be managed for the people of Scotland. The sea is a common resource – that’s the wording. It is not to be managed for one group of people at the expense of everyone else. This matters so much because there’s the carbon sink aspect and biodiversity crisis aspect. These things are so intertwined that they have to be managed together. This matters for everyone’s children.

“It’s accepted terrestrially that we have to change. The UK and Scotland are some of the most biodiversity depleted countries in Europe, but this extends below the water,” Ailsa explained. 

What it means for Seaful

We couldn’t agree more with the need for better management of Scotland’s inshore waters. We are dedicated to the oceans being available to and providing benefit for everyone. Joining the Our Seas Coalition is a big step towards helping change that in Scotland and ensuring that both the country’s fisheries and its wider ocean environments are managed, in line with science, for the health, wellbeing and prosperity of coastal communities and the public at large.

You can find out more about the work the Our Seas Coalition does on their website – as well as how you can get involved as an individual or an organisation.