This article appears as part of the Winds of Change newsletter.

Many of the lines are already there on the map. We have know in Scotland what areas and features since 2014 when a list of 81 priority marine features were created, and 30 marine protected areas designated.

But ensuring that protection has been quite a different matter.

For much of this current Scottish Government, marine protection has been a fraught issue, almost unmentionable following the disastrous Highly Protected Marine Areas consultation, a plan ditched following a popular backlash from fishing communities whose most memorable moment was the Skippinish song, "The Clearances Again".

Back in 2023 Mairi McAllan announced the scrapping of HPMAs, which had been a ‘red line’ for the Scottish Greens in the Bute House agreement. Marine protection would still happen, McAllan said, but not via this route.

"I am determined," she said, "to protect our oceans in a way that is fair, and to find a way forward that ensures our seas remain a source of prosperity for the nation, especially in our coastal and island communities.”

Not long after the ditching of the plan, fishing bodies were expressing concern at the possibility of HPMAs ‘by the back door’ - and they still are.

Yet marine protection still matters. Many of us care – whether coastal........

© Herald Scotland