SCA News: Marine
Sleat marine litter weekend: rain, chat…and a little hope
By Dan Milner Sleat Nature Groups’s marine litter weekend (26-27 July) went with a bang despite the inclement weather! Joining the group this time for their quarterly marine litter survey of Ostaig beach on the Saturday, were Dr Tom Stanton and his team from...
Petition to ban bottom trawling in seabed Marine Protected Areas
Petition by The Wildlife Trusts to MInister Emma Hardy, DEFRA. This applies to 41seabed Marine Protected Areas designated offshore in England, but it is still worth sending your comments. https://action.wildlifetrusts.org/page/171084/action/2 Closes on 29th...
The microplastics scourge, and how technology and international action can help
Microplastics are everywhere on Earth, from the depths of the Mariana Trench to the summit of Everest, in the air, the water, in plants, animals and our bodies. The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation says soils contain more microplastic pollution than the oceans...
Skye beach cleans update
by Peggy Semler May was a busy month for us, with the weekend of 9-11 May turning out to be the biggest beach cleaning event we have ever organised on the island – the Bracadale Beach Blitz! With the help of many volunteers and partner organisations, and especially...
A food system off-track?
by Anne MacLennan Salmon farming is unsustainable according to a report published last month. Aquaculture is the fastest food production system in the world. Farmed fish have outnumbered wild-caught fish since 2022. Seventy percent of salmon are now farmed, with...
Bracadale Beach Blitz
by Peggy Semler From 9 - 11 May, a successful collaborative effort took place to remove marine litter and debris from seven beaches around Loch Bracadale. Volunteers, along with partner organisations, focused on cleaning remote and inaccessible areas along the...
Does Skye need a Plastic Action group?
by Anne MacLennan Plastic is a problem and there is a lot of it about. Invented (as Bakelite) in 1907, production had reached 2.3m tons annually by 1950, 448 tons in 2015, and is set to at least double by mid-century. The plastic lifecycle aggravates climate change...
Skye Beach Cleans update for May
by Peggy Semler We have been slowly ramping up activities during April, with beach cleans at Harlosh (5th), survey and clean at Ostaig by Sleat Nature Group (6th), clean at Ullinish/Eabost (12th) and Uig (26th) – which means we have now removed in excess of 2.5 tonnes...
Salmon farming reflections
by Anne MacLennan Skye's Scottish Salmon Think-Tank (SST-T) recently joined the Coastal Communities Network, a community-led network of local groups ‘committed to the preservation and safeguarding of Scotland’s coastal and marine environments’. Formed in 2017 with...