Arran Natural History Society April meeting

Arran Natural History Society’s final meeting of the 2024 spring season will be a talk by Community of Arran Seabed Trust’s Marine Protected Area Project Officer Lucy Kay titled ‘Fifteen years of research in Arran’s marine protected areas – what have we learned?’.

The community on Arran has been proactively campaigning for better protection and management of Arran’s seas since the 1990s.

This led to the successful establishment of the Lamlash Bay No Take Zone (NTZ) in 2008 – Scotland’s first and only No Take Zone.

Some years later, the larger South Arran Marine Protected Area (MPA) was established, expanding the area of Arran’s seas that is protected from commercial fishing.

So, what has been happening with the marine life in these protected areas as a result?

Lucy will talk about some of the research taking place in the NTZ and MPA and what COAST’s work is revealing.

Lucy has been based on Arran since 2019 and before that worked on marine protected areas in Wales and overseas.

She has been a keen scuba diver for many years and enjoys the relatively clear waters around Arran and the wealth of marine life that can be found here.

The meeting, which will include the ANHS Annual General Meeting, will be on Tuesday, April 2, at 7.30pm at Ormidale Pavilion.

Admission is free to members or by a £5 donation for guests.

• Members can pick up their copy of the recently published 2023 Arran Bird Report at the AGM 

Featured image shows Lucy scuba diving. Credit: COAST