Three shorelines, one throughline

31 July 2026

104 miles, as the crow flies. That’s the distance between the three MPA site visits that took place last month. Ullapool to Waternish to Cromarty. 

At first glance, it doesn’t seem a great distance, maybe 90 minutes on a motorway. But the twisting roads are piped onto the side of coastal hills like icing, and who wouldn’t stop to take in the view? Each leg of the journey takes many more hours than you might expect.  No-one seems to mind. 

It’s also a reminder that you can feel isolated if you live in one of these communities. Therefore, staying connected is key, particularly when it comes to ocean know-how. 

Ullapool 

Ullapool sits within the Wester Ross MPA, designated in 2014. In that time, some of the flora and fauna have bounced back, which is a testament to local protection and vigilance. The Open Seas team were out doing surveys while we were there, and the early signs are good: recovery is visible in the data. People want proof that these measures are actually working, not just reassurance, and it’s hard to argue with numbers heading in the right direction. 

A decade is often long enough for a coastal ecosystem to start healing, and also long enough for a community group – Ullapool Sea Savers – to form around watching over it. They’ve recently got their hands on a Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV), to perform underwater surveys and show the public what’s living beneath the waves which most people never see. We put them in touch with the Community of Arran Seabed Trust, COAST, who already had an ROV, and who came up to show them the ropes.  

Not every connection is positive though. Wester Ross also has a steady stream of plastic, litter, and the occasional sofa washing up on their shores. Removing this kind of waste is arduous, time-consuming and unglamorous work, but the kind locals are tackling themselves and one that provides immediate visible results for the village. 

 

Waternish

Further south, the story is different, but connections are equally relevant.  

In some cases, the connections are unwanted. A new cable installation threatens to disrupt livelihoods that depend on these waters, a reminder that conservation here isn’t happening in a vacuum. There’s a Special Area of Conservation at Ardmore Bay protecting the seals, and further offshore, the maerl beds are being considered for designation as a Priority Marine Feature management zone.  

And some more positive connections stretch not just through space, but time. For example we were delighted to connect Chloe Mackley to members of the Waternish Wildlife Association. Chloe is completing her Masters thesis at Edinburgh University focussed on how a coastal community’s traditional knowledge of its own waters matters, and can support management of MPAs, and how easily that memory gets lost if nobody’s recording it. This will provide essential baseline data, to further inform the trajectory of biodiversity in Ardmore Bay.   

 

Cromarty

The final stop brought its own set of challenges, and its own web of people working to tackle them together. 

Moray Ocean Community and the Moray Firth Coastal Partnership are working with local schools, and we’re helping lay the groundwork for what comes next: connecting professional educators, out-of-school programmes, and protected area management organisations, all of whom bring years of marine education experience but haven’t always had a reason to talk to each other. 

The Black Isle, meanwhile, has its own Local Place Plan, and has recently formed a board of directors to advocate for the priorities the community has identified. Several of those priorities are marine ones, and we and the Moray Firth Coastal Partnership are now beginning to help turn them into action. 

Not every pressure here can be solved by a conversation, though. The development of the Green Freeport at Nigg and Ardersier has already displaced some creel fishers through dredging and sedimentation – a familiar story, echoing what’s happening in Waternish.  

 

Our illuminating roadtrip was a reminder that Ullapool’s ROV story is Arran’s story too. Waternish’s institutional memory is Cromarty’s education work, by a different name. The cable at Waternish and the Freeport at Nigg are the same kinds of pressure, arriving by a different route. 

104 miles, as the crow flies, isn’t the only distance we’re trying to close.