Rewilding Challenge Fund recipient: COAST

In the waters off the Isle of Arran, an ambitious new chapter in marine rewilding is unfolding. The Community of Arran Seabed Trust (COAST), a trailblazing force behind Scotland’s first – and still only – No Take Zone (NTZ), is now leading a bold effort to bring their inspiring community-led rewilding approach to more of Arran’s struggling coastal seas.

The latest beneficiaries of the Rewilding Challenge Fund, COAST will use their £100,000 to take on one of the most urgent, complex and inspiring rewilding challenges in Britain today: bringing life back to the ocean floor whilst building a thriving future for people and nature alike through their project: Communities and the Sea: Exploring our Coastal Waters. 

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

North Arran’s marine ecosystems — home to maerl beds, seagrass meadows and burrowed mud habitats — are vital nurseries for fish, carbon sinks and natural storm defences. Yet unlike neighbouring protected areas, these waters remain vulnerable.

COAST’s inspiring vision for North Arran aims 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 rewilding projects 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 of Arran’s Marine Protected Area 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 North Arran’s unmanaged marine environments.
• Establish the Communities and the Sea: Exploring our Coastal Waters project, engaging with communities outside of the Marine Protected Area with a view of understanding community aspirations regarding marine 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 rewilding as a model for marine restoration, inspiring efforts across Scotland, Britain and globally.

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

• Complete over 45 habitat surveys to map the seafloor using Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) and divers
• Recruit and train 30+ volunteers in marine science and citizen-led monitoring
• Hold seven community workshops to co-design the North Arran Marine Recovery Plan
• Facilitate targeted roundtables with policymakers, fishers and local businesses
• Launch the data-driven restoration plan, backed by local knowledge and robust science

By the end of this project, North Arran will have a clear path forward to protect its seas – and a community ready to lead the way.

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 one of the largest maerl beds in Scotland. This pioneering 2.67 km² marine reserve completely 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.