Rewilding Challenge Fund recipient: COAST

In the waters off the Isle of Arran, an ambitious new chapter is unfolding. Community of Arran Seabed Trust (COAST), the community-led marine conservation charity behind Scotland’s first – and still only — No Take Zone (NTZ), have launched their new project – Communities and the Sea. 

Partnering with Arran’s residents, they’re diving into coastal seas island-wide to gather stories, memories and knowledge of the sea, exploring how to look after the marine environment together.

The latest beneficiaries of the Rewilding Challenge Fund, COAST will use their £100,000 to bring people together to explore and celebrate Arran’s rich marine heritage both above and below the water.

This is community action at seascape scale — backed by science, driven by community and designed to last.

The marine ecosystems in Arran’s coastal waters — home to maerl beds, seagrass meadows and burrowed mud habitats — are vital nurseries for fish, carbon sinks and natural storm defences. Yet unlike neighbouring protectedareas. The South Arran MPA (Marine Protected Area) provides protection, but Northern waters remain vulnerable.

COAST’s inspiring vision for north Arran aims to work with the community to:

• Survey seabed habitats and natural marine processes
• Strengthen the ecological link between north and south Arran
• Embed community-led stewardship into Scotland’s long-term marine conservation strategy

This initiative is one of the largest community-led marine projects of its kind in the UK – and a perfect fit for our Rewilding Challenge Fund. 

This new funding will help COAST to build on its successful work by engaging with communities outside to explore areas currently lacking specific marine management.

The £100,000 grant will enable COAST to:

• Harness 30 years of community-led marine conservation by expanding COAST’s focus from Lamlash Bay to south Arran to the Arran’s northern marine environments.
• Establish the Communities and the Sea: Exploring our Coastal Waters project, engaging with communities with a view to understanding community aspirations regarding their marine environment and recovery around Arran.
• Strengthen partnerships with the community, marine businesses and academic researchers, ensuring restoration activities are informed by robust scientific data, community feedback and habitat assessments.
• Profile Arran’s community-led efforts as a model for marine restoration, inspiring others across Scotland, Britain and globally.

Over the next two years, COAST will use the Rewilding Challenge Fund to support activity to:

• Complete habitat surveys to map the seafloor using Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) and divers.
• Recruit and train volunteers in marine science and citizen-led monitoring.
• Hold community workshops to co-design the Communities and the Sea: Exploring our Coastal Water project.
• Facilitate targeted roundtable discussions with policymakers, fishers, local businesses and other marine stakeholders.
• Launch the project, backed by local knowledge and robust science

By the end of this project, the north Arran marine area will have a clear path for its future, developed and delivered through community research, discussion and action.

COAST was created in 1995 by two local scuba divers after witnessing the destruction of Arran’s marine habitats and a dramatic decline in fish stocks. After a 100-year ban on inshore bottom trawling (within three miles of the coast) was lifted in 1984, the industrial fishing practice — combined with increased scallop dredging — was having an evident impact on Arran’s fish stocks and, by proxy, on the island’s community. By 1994, catches were down by 96% compared to 1984.

In 2008, the community was the driving force behind the establishment of Scotland’s first NTZ in Lamlash Bay, home to maerl beds and other vital marine habitats. This pioneering 2.67 km² marine reserve protects the waters, seabed and inhabitants from all forms of fishing. 

Increasingly concerned about the degradation of the Firth of Clyde’s marine ecosystem, the community once again pushed for further protection under the Scottish Government’s Marine Protection Area (MPA) programme. This ultimately resulted in the designation of the South Arran MPA in 2014, and the implementation of fisheries management measures, that promote sustainable fishing, in 2016. 

The NTZ sits within this 280 km² MPA, and together these reserves are boosting sea and community life – including benefits to the local fishing industry.