Demonstration & Research Marine Protected Area Application

Our ‘Mon the Fish’ survey showed that the Craignish community had a vision of a cleaner, healthier loch, alongside more community agency and participation. Having become a hub for native oyster and seagrass research thanks to Seawilding, the community saw an opportunity to strengthen and widen this pro-active engagement.

Demonstration & Research Marine Protect Areas (D&R MPAs), administered by Marine Directorate are a new type of official designation which are for demonstrating, or carrying out research on sustainable methods of marine management or exploitation. Having reviewed all the possible protection mechanisms the community agreed that this seemed the best route.

A D&R MPA in Loch Craignish would allow the community and all the key stakeholders to work together to improve the health and biodiversity of the loch, creating a new model for local community management.  Unlike a lot of other protection mechanisms this MPA does not forbid or restrict any activities, because everyone agrees that we want the Loch to continue to be a ‘working loch’ for everyone.

Since we agreed that this was the right way forward, CROMACH has conducted extensive consultation with all the key stakeholders in the loch and prepared a draft proposal showing how a D&R MPA in Loch Craignish might work.

You can read the draft proposal: