2016/08/23 Planet Rock Maerl bed

Sea Change Wester Ross, the Scottish Creel Fishermen’s Federation (SCFF) and SubSeaTV collaborated to undergo a weeklong survey in 2016.  The main objective of the survey was to create a baseline map of maerl beds and their condition to monitor recovery and change, to explore areas where new fish farms were proposed (to the east of Tanera, near Horse Island and near Bottle Island) for priority marine features and assess and the seabed under existing fish farms. Naturally the best people to know the underwater area are scallop divers or recreational divers. So thanks to Ali Hughson during the survey we discovered a new maerl bed (or at least a much more extensive one from previous survey markers).

Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) helped by getting much of footage assessed by Heriot Watt University and this fed in to SNH’s official report to the Minister on the Wester Ross MPA which was published in 2019.

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Video by Andy Jackson

Video by Andy Jackson

Video by Andy Jackson