Sutherland Marine Audit
What do we know about the coast of Assynt?
Much of the interest of naturalists living in and visiting Assynt is focussed, predictably, on the terrestrial landscape, perhaps because it is easier to access. Our coasts and shallow seas have received rather less attention. The notable exceptions are regular monitoring by Field Club members of whales and dolphins (Whale and Dolphin Conservation), seabirds (Wetland Bird Survey), and occasional enthusiastic forays into beachcombing and regular beach cleaning.
Nearly twenty years ago the Sutherland Biodiversity Action Plan (2003) stated that ‘the marine environment is much less surveyed and understood than on land, and…we do not know the distribution of many important marine habitats and species, much less potentially damaging operations and management requirements’.
One response, by the Sutherland Partnership Biodiversity Group, was to fund a Sutherland Marine Audit: Pilot Study (May 2009). This was carried out by Dr Duncan May and Ian M. Evans and their report was published in 2009.
Its aims were:
a. to locate available information for a 15km stretch of the West Sutherland coast (Inverkirkaig to Point of Stoer, NC0719-0235) and describe how it may be accessed.
b. to assess the quality and quantity of information , with examples.
c. to assess the feasibility and value of a marine audit of the whole of the Sutherland coast.
d. to promote discussion of the most effective means of gathering relevant information from, and distributing it to, local communities, visitors and other interested parties.
There has recently been a flurry of activity around an application for further grant-aid to the North West, under the auspices of the European-funded Endangered Landscapes Programme. This prompted me to look out my copy of the Pilot Study report. Such are the frailties of memory that I was quite impressed with the enthusiasm of the two compilers and what they managed to gather into its 48 pages.
I also enjoyed re-visiting the contributions of a number of Field Club members, including divers Russell and Bridie Pursey, photographers Chris and Helen Pellant and sea angler Howard Grey. And, in passing, the young child in the middle of the group of local primary school children on the cover recently graduated from Edinburgh University with a Degree in Ecological Sciences.
The coasts and shallow seas of Assynt could be a key theme in any contribution that the Field Club makes to this new programme, and this report may be a useful starting point.
Ian M. Evans