Nick Underdown: Scottish Environment Link: ‘ We’ve just published this: This blog has attempted to chart the long, and sometimes torturous, process of setting up Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in Scotland. Many of you may be wondering what is happening with Scotland’s MPAs? Are they going to be paper parks? Or are they finally going to help reverse the fortunes of our inshore waters, which have suffered such serious ecological decline? Before wading into the detail of this post, we urge you to read our Running History of MPAs in Scotland. If you’ve seen that, read on…There is a lot of noise around the MPAs right now. Some (not all) fishing groups are criticising the MPA process at a crucial stage. We need to re-wind a bit here to understand why this is the case. And to fully grasp the situation, we also need to understand the structure of the Scottish fishing industry.   To read more of this important piece which has lots of links go to:

http://www.savescottishseas.org/news/seabed-sense-crucial-support-for-scotlands-inshore-mpas/

This piece in the Scotsmen reflects these views; www.scotsman.com/news/targeted-marine-action-works-1-3817272