Help! Kelp!

It’s bad enough that Scottish inshore waters are open to destructive fishing methods, or that salmon farms propose expansions when they have a shocking record of polluting our waters with waste and chemicals, infesting wild salmon with lice, causing distress to cetaceans with acoustic deterrent devices, and shooting seals. This is a long enough list of things to fight against, but here comes another one…

A company called Marine Biopolymers propose to harvest 30,000 tonnes of kelp annually from Scottish waters. Adapted trawlers with large-toothed grabs could be allowed to plough their way through our kelp forests, destroying hundreds of square miles of seabed habitat, making casualties of the animals who live on kelp.

Kelp grows mostly on rocky reefs close to shore where old-style dredgers and trawlers could not tow their gear without damaging or losing it. This rich habitat escaped man’s industrial fishing methods until now. It has previously been fished by traditional and sustainable methods like creeling that do very little damage. As such it is probably one of the few places of sanctuary left for marine animals.

I have dipped into SubSeaTV’s archive and assembled a sequence of video clips to show how precious our kelp forests are. This is a work in progress and I will be spending more time in the kelp to film the lives of animals that call the kelp forest home.

I’m supporting local people that are passionately opposed to these plans, like Ailsa McLellan who is licensed to hand cut kelp in a sustainable manner. Check out her Facebook page and if you want to help please sign and share her petition.