From the bottom up...

C.O.A.S.T.
(The Community of Arran Seabed Trust)

THE BOTTOM UP APPROACH.

Our advice on encouraging communities to work towards/demand
Marine Protected Areas and No Take Zones in their areas.

We feel that SNH, NE, and CCW all have a major role to play in encouraging, advising and funding local community groups
who are interested in protecting the marine environment in their area.
We also feel that without encouraging "The bottom up" approach,
the "Top down approach" will have a much reduced chance of succeeding over the long term.
How to identify individuals or groups already in existence.
We feel this is a job for all staff but especially Local Area Officers. Getting out and about in coastal communities, building relationships and involving local people in our (soon to be their) vision. The obvious place to start looking are - divers and their clubs, sea anglers and their clubs, people interested in Natural History and any organisation involved or interested in marine activities. All these people might have different views about what the end product should be. A diver or naturalist might want marine life to be completely untouched or undisturbed. An angler wants to see more and bigger fish to catch but nowadays could be convinced to catch and release the majority of his catch. Commercial fishermen want more and better quality fish but can be convinced that for the long term sustainability and their sons' future they need to fish responsibly. All these people could come together to form a joint project with similar aims. Then sow a seed: Arrange a presentation to them, showing what has happened in other parts of the world e.g. New Zealand. Get them talking about how it used to be 20 or 30 years ago. Encourage them to do something about it in their locality. Tell them that there is no point continually moaning about the situation we have got ourselves into. The solution can be in their own hands.
They could use an already formed association or start up a new one. COAST began with 2 people who through the island local newspaper encouraged people to come to a public meeting. We then formed a committee and then an Association. In the last 2 years COAST changed to become a limited Company by guarantee to protect its members from possible legal action or bankruptcy.
We feel that you need a strong core group of people willing to put in a lot of time and work, but backed up by the rest of the committee. They must encourage members of the public to become members and the more members the better. Since 2002 COAST slowly built up its membership to 1800 of which approximately 70% are on the island (Arran's population is 5000). A large membership makes it much easier to persuade politicians to take up your cause.
At every year's AGM, COAST debate how much membership should be and so far our membership has been free since 2002. This is mainly due to a similar organisation on the island involved in recycling starting out with a nominal Ł1 yearly fee which was fine the first year when people joined but ended up costing huge amounts of time and money in following years trying to collect it.
Much better asking for donations possibly regular ones from members.

SNH advised COAST to get involved in Seasearch in 2002 and with the help of Calum Duncan of MCS, who trained 8 local divers, Seasearch has proved to be an invaluable tool in educating us in what we have in our locality.

The digital pictures taken during these dives can then be used to make Power Point presentations to local community organisations like WRIs , Rotary, British Legion, Gardening clubs etc. A separate PP presentation was made for schools and visiting children to the Outdoor Education Centre. Over the last 5 years Howard and Tom have given approximately 100 presentations on the island with many of the organisations and schools inviting us back on a yearly basis. An important part of these presentations are old photos of scenes of sea angling or commercial fishing and their huge catches and large specimen fish.

An essential part of the new organisation is to speak to older and middle aged people who can recount what it was like just 20 -30 years ago. Many of these people will have or know of the whereabouts of old photos or possibly old cine films. The best ones include local well known people as well as big fish and lobsters. These images are invaluable in giving local presentations. Any local documentation of catches from the past should be scanned and copied for your new archives.
The other images we have used over the years are underwater video footage of scallop dredgers doing what scallop dredgers do: destroying the seabed flora and fauna. We find at the end of a presentation most people agree with our aims and join COAST.

The Media
Local Press must be used from the beginning. Go and talk to the journalists on the local paper. Search out one who seems to have the most interest and explain that over the years how much copy he will get out of covering the story and that you can provide amazing colourful underwater photos free of charge.
Keep them informed of key meetings and community events. People in power from Politicians, SEERAD/DEFRA to SNH/NE/CCW are generally very aware of the press. As well as being a way of getting the message over to the public, it can be a powerful tool in moving important decision makers to view your project positively.
( Making the wrong decision could have a detrimental effect on their career and pension...)

Using national media (Press, radio and TV) is much more difficult, but if you get the chance jump at it. COAST have been fortunate to be featured by both national papers and TV. You have to realise that you will not have editorial control and generally the journalist or producer will always have his angle on the story but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to get approximately 75% of your point across.
The Internet
Having your own website is nowadays a must. Try and keep it up to date.
COAST’s website is in need of a complete revamp; check it out: what do you think?
Blogs, Tweets, YouTube, FaceBook: all are means of putting your point across.
Politicians
Use every opportunity to meet with your local political representative.
In Scotland at the moment we have 4 local councillors for each ward, 1 elected MSP and up to 5 list MSP representing us at Holyrood , 1 MP at Westminster and 1 MEP at Europe .
(Don’t forget you also have a local community council.
We give a presentation to them most years as part of our policy of keeping the local community informed)
It was our MP Brian Wilson in 1995 who first started asking questions to the Scottish Office on our behalf. He also helped us get our first meeting in Edinburgh with SEERAD . Go to their surgeries. Ask for meetings at least every 6 months. Keep them informed of what you are doing and always ask them to do something on your behalf and ask them to get back to you with the answer.
The six months before an election are important times to let them know what you want and that at the last count how many members you now have in his/her constituency.
Before the last election we had some concerns about some of the political parties and whether if they gained power it would undo some of the work we had done over the last few years. Our thoughts were somewhat allayed when in all the political bumf that came through the Arran letter boxes - all the candidates from the main parties plus one independent had all endorsed COAST's aims in their election material. Years of work was starting to pay off!
Find out how the political system works whether that is at Holyrood or Westminster. Ask politicians, look up the Parliaments' web sites, get clued up as to how things work and keep learning as politics never stands still. Apart from local politicians make contact with anyone with influence who might be interested in what you are doing - from royalty to business men. Then keep them informed at least every 12 months.

Other Organisations
Try to find and then meet up with any similar organisations anywhere in the UK. COAST keep regular contact with the Hebridean Partnership based in Oban whose aims are different from COAST's.
The Hebridean Partnership are lobbying for a large marine national park which would contain MPAs. Check out their web site.
Also see the Fair Isle initiative.
When COAST first started in the 90s we thought we were the only people trying to get a NTZ going. It took us a while to track down other people and organisations who were trying to do similar things. Phillippa Hoskins, who was working for Cornwall County Council, was the first person we spoke to. She gave us a huge amount of advice and support and passed word of our project on to others. By 2003 we were involved in an Esmee Fairbairn nationally funded initiative in contact and meeting up annually with the scientist working at Port Erin on the closed Scallop area, Natural England (formerly English Nature) and the people about to get Lundy as the UK's first NTZ, Callum Roberts from York University , Rupert Ormond the director at The Millport Marine Biological station, Tom Hooper of Finding Sanctuary and David Donnan of SNH .
All these people and many more were at the end of the phone or e-mail happy to give us advice and support. Being invited to be part of this pioneering group gave us a huge confidence boost.

Seasearch as we have already said is very valuable - whether it is for informing yourselves or SNH. At some point you are going to have to make contact with professional marine scientist to ask their advice on the area you have chosen or help in choosing the best area. Try and get to know as many of these marine scientists as possible. While some will be very enthusiastic about closed areas there are some, mainly I think who have had their wages and pensions paid through doing fisheries and aquaculture science for most of their careers, who are at best luke warm to MPAs.
So choose wisely who you get your scientific advice from and then cultivate them.

Fishermen
In 1997 Don and myself invited all Arran registered fishermen to the Ormidale Hotel to discuss our plans for a NTZ somewhere around Arran. The meeting lasted probably about 90 minutes and at that time there were eight of them. A mixture of creelers and shellfish divers, 4 full time and 4 part-time. During the meeting it was agreed that an area off Clauchlands in Lamlash Bay would not affect any of them too much. For us it was ideal as it was easily accessible and could be seen from local houses.
In 2002 Gabby Pieraccini, SEERADS head of inshore fisheries, told us that we must meet with all mainland based fishermen’s organisations to discuss our plans. This we did over the next few months; following an initial meeting in Ardrishaig with the Clyde and Southwest Static Gear Association (now SCAD) and follow up e-mails, after 6 months we had agreement with them regarding a NTZ in Lamlash Bay.
At the same time we were invited to Carradale to meet with the Clyde Fishermen’s Association (Carradale branch). We were pleasantly surprised and the meeting seemed to go well with the possibilities of agreement in the future. Our chosen area was redesigned with their help. An area that stuck out into the Clyde was cut off to help with Scallop tows outside the bay and an area was added so that the now proposed NTZ stretched right from Clauchlands shore to the Holy Isle. Meeting with the CFA continued with SNH and SEERAD in attendance but over the next few years the CFA said that a total cessation of scallop dredging in the Bay would, they feel, be the thin edge of the wedge and refused to sign up to it.
We feel that only by continued dialogue and building up of trust on both sides was the possibility of a deal finally brokered by the Scottish Parliaments Environment and Rural Development Committee in Holyrood itself. This was after the Minister Finnie had sat on his hands trying to tell both sides that the only way forward was a voluntary deal between both sides. Something that we and fortunately the CFA both knew would be a waste of time.

If you want a MPA you are going to have to meet and deal with fishermen. All will not be against what you want but the majority will. Until they can see with their own eyes the positive effects which happen outside NTZs. some will say "Over my dead body" and always will. Remember you don’t have to persuade all of them. Just enough to let the politicians and civil servants move the proposal forward.
If you are going to meet with fishermen you have to have some knowledge of their fishing methods. You need to find out as much as you can from books and the Web and then if possible ask to go out to sea on a fishing boat for the odd day. Not easy but it’s a lot easier in the middle of negotiations if you do know what you are talking about and you will understand the fishermen’s point of view much better.

NGOs
Non Governmental Organisations like MCS , WWF , RSPB and Greenpeace can be excellent for helping and giving advice. All 4 of these organisations have helped COAST and offered advice - some which we took, others we didn’t or haven’t used yet. Contact them and let them know what you are trying to do. Calum from MCS as we have said before trained us in Seasearch and helped rewrite our proposals. Remember they have their own agenda which in my experience never comes from the local community’s point of view. Use their expertise but don’t become one of them, You are not another environmental NGO, you are a community organisation wanting a MPA/NTZ. That is where your strength in dealing with government and their advisers comes from.
The Law
You will need good legal advice and you will find that there are very few lawyers that know anything about the laws of the sea & fishing, the ones that do are already working for the fishermen’s organisations. COAST are very fortunate in that many years ago we came across Tom Appleby a Bristol based Lawyer who has help us for many years. Tom’s work behind the scenes has been invaluable, checking out fact from complete fantasy. Tom has on our behalf kept SEERAD and the fishermen’s lawyers on their toes forcing them to admit one or two things they would have rather kept hidden.

HW

	We feel that SNH, NE, and CCW all have a major role to play in encouraging, advising and funding local community groups who are interested in protecting the marine environment in their area. We also feel that without encouraging "The bottom up" approach, the "Top down approach" will have a much reduced chance of succeeding over the long term. How to identify individuals or groups already in existence. We feel this is a job for all staff but especially Local Area Officers. Getting out and about in coastal communities, building relationships and involving local people in our (soon to be their) vision. The obvious place to start looking are - divers and their clubs, sea anglers and their clubs, people interested in Natural History and any organisation involved or interested in marine activities. All these people might have different views about what the end product should be. A diver or naturalist might want marine life to be completely untouched or undisturbed. An angler wants to see more and bigger fish to catch but nowadays could be convinced to catch and release the majority of his catch. Commercial fishermen want more and better quality fish but can be convinced that for the long term sustainability and their sons' future they need to fish responsibly. All these people could come together to form a joint project with similar aims. Then sow a seed: Arrange a presentation to them, showing what has happened in other parts of the world e.g. New Zealand. Get them talking about how it used to be 20 or 30 years ago. Encourage them to do something about it in their locality. Tell them that there is no point continually moaning about the situation we have got ourselves into. The solution can be in their own hands. They could use an already formed association or start up a new one. COAST began with 2 people who through the island local newspaper encouraged people to come to a public meeting. We then formed a committee and then an Association. In the last 2 years COAST changed to become a limited Company by guarantee to protect its members from possible legal action or bankruptcy. We feel that you need a strong core group of people willing to put in a lot of time and work, but backed up by the rest of the committee. They must encourage members of the public to become members and the more members the better. Since 2002 COAST slowly built up its membership to 1800 of which approximately 70% are on the island (Arran's population is 5000). A large membership makes it much easier to persuade politicians to take up your cause. At every year's AGM, COAST debate how much membership should be and so far our membership has been free since 2002. This is mainly due to a similar organisation on the island involved in recycling starting out with a nominal Ł1 yearly fee which was fine the first year when people joined but ended up costing huge amounts of time and money in following years trying to collect it. Much better asking for donations possibly regular ones from members.
	SNH advised COAST to get involved in Seasearch in 2002 and with the help of Calum Duncan of MCS, who trained 8 local divers, Seasearch has proved to be an invaluable tool in educating us in what we have in our locality. The digital pictures taken during these dives can then be used to make Power Point presentations to local community organisations like WRIs , Rotary, British Legion, Gardening clubs etc. A separate PP presentation was made for schools and visiting children to the Outdoor Education Centre. Over the last 5 years Howard and Tom have given approximately 100 presentations on the island with many of the organisations and schools inviting us back on a yearly basis. An important part of these presentations are old photos of scenes of sea angling or commercial fishing and their huge catches and large specimen fish. An essential part of the new organisation is to speak to older and middle aged people who can recount what it was like just 20 -30 years ago. Many of these people will have or know of the whereabouts of old photos or possibly old cine films. The best ones include local well known people as well as big fish and lobsters. These images are invaluable in giving local presentations. Any local documentation of catches from the past should be scanned and copied for your new archives. The other images we have used over the years are underwater video footage of scallop dredgers doing what scallop dredgers do: destroying the seabed flora and fauna. We find at the end of a presentation most people agree with our aims and join COAST.
	The Media Local Press must be used from the beginning. Go and talk to the journalists on the local paper. Search out one who seems to have the most interest and explain that over the years how much copy he will get out of covering the story and that you can provide amazing colourful underwater photos free of charge. Keep them informed of key meetings and community events. People in power from Politicians, SEERAD/DEFRA to SNH/NE/CCW are generally very aware of the press. As well as being a way of getting the message over to the public, it can be a powerful tool in moving important decision makers to view your project positively. ( Making the wrong decision could have a detrimental effect on their career and pension...)
	Using national media (Press, radio and TV) is much more difficult, but if you get the chance jump at it. COAST have been fortunate to be featured by both national papers and TV. You have to realise that you will not have editorial control and generally the journalist or producer will always have his angle on the story but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to get approximately 75% of your point across. The Internet Having your own website is nowadays a must. Try and keep it up to date. COAST’s website is in need of a complete revamp; check it out: what do you think? Blogs, Tweets, YouTube, FaceBook: all are means of putting your point across. Politicians Use every opportunity to meet with your local political representative. In Scotland at the moment we have 4 local councillors for each ward, 1 elected MSP and up to 5 list MSP representing us at Holyrood , 1 MP at Westminster and 1 MEP at Europe . (Don’t forget you also have a local community council. We give a presentation to them most years as part of our policy of keeping the local community informed) It was our MP Brian Wilson in 1995 who first started asking questions to the Scottish Office on our behalf. He also helped us get our first meeting in Edinburgh with SEERAD . Go to their surgeries. Ask for meetings at least every 6 months. Keep them informed of what you are doing and always ask them to do something on your behalf and ask them to get back to you with the answer. The six months before an election are important times to let them know what you want and that at the last count how many members you now have in his/her constituency. Before the last election we had some concerns about some of the political parties and whether if they gained power it would undo some of the work we had done over the last few years. Our thoughts were somewhat allayed when in all the political bumf that came through the Arran letter boxes - all the candidates from the main parties plus one independent had all endorsed COAST's aims in their election material. Years of work was starting to pay off! Find out how the political system works whether that is at Holyrood or Westminster. Ask politicians, look up the Parliaments' web sites, get clued up as to how things work and keep learning as politics never stands still. Apart from local politicians make contact with anyone with influence who might be interested in what you are doing - from royalty to business men. Then keep them informed at least every 12 months.
	Other Organisations Try to find and then meet up with any similar organisations anywhere in the UK. COAST keep regular contact with the Hebridean Partnership based in Oban whose aims are different from COAST's. The Hebridean Partnership are lobbying for a large marine national park which would contain MPAs. Check out their web site. Also see the Fair Isle initiative. When COAST first started in the 90s we thought we were the only people trying to get a NTZ going. It took us a while to track down other people and organisations who were trying to do similar things. Phillippa Hoskins, who was working for Cornwall County Council, was the first person we spoke to. She gave us a huge amount of advice and support and passed word of our project on to others. By 2003 we were involved in an Esmee Fairbairn nationally funded initiative in contact and meeting up annually with the scientist working at Port Erin on the closed Scallop area, Natural England (formerly English Nature) and the people about to get Lundy as the UK's first NTZ, Callum Roberts from York University , Rupert Ormond the director at The Millport Marine Biological station, Tom Hooper of Finding Sanctuary and David Donnan of SNH . All these people and many more were at the end of the phone or e-mail happy to give us advice and support. Being invited to be part of this pioneering group gave us a huge confidence boost. Seasearch as we have already said is very valuable - whether it is for informing yourselves or SNH. At some point you are going to have to make contact with professional marine scientist to ask their advice on the area you have chosen or help in choosing the best area. Try and get to know as many of these marine scientists as possible. While some will be very enthusiastic about closed areas there are some, mainly I think who have had their wages and pensions paid through doing fisheries and aquaculture science for most of their careers, who are at best luke warm to MPAs. So choose wisely who you get your scientific advice from and then cultivate them.
	Fishermen In 1997 Don and myself invited all Arran registered fishermen to the Ormidale Hotel to discuss our plans for a NTZ somewhere around Arran. The meeting lasted probably about 90 minutes and at that time there were eight of them. A mixture of creelers and shellfish divers, 4 full time and 4 part-time. During the meeting it was agreed that an area off Clauchlands in Lamlash Bay would not affect any of them too much. For us it was ideal as it was easily accessible and could be seen from local houses. In 2002 Gabby Pieraccini, SEERADS head of inshore fisheries, told us that we must meet with all mainland based fishermen’s organisations to discuss our plans. This we did over the next few months; following an initial meeting in Ardrishaig with the Clyde and Southwest Static Gear Association (now SCAD) and follow up e-mails, after 6 months we had agreement with them regarding a NTZ in Lamlash Bay. At the same time we were invited to Carradale to meet with the Clyde Fishermen’s Association (Carradale branch). We were pleasantly surprised and the meeting seemed to go well with the possibilities of agreement in the future. Our chosen area was redesigned with their help. An area that stuck out into the Clyde was cut off to help with Scallop tows outside the bay and an area was added so that the now proposed NTZ stretched right from Clauchlands shore to the Holy Isle. Meeting with the CFA continued with SNH and SEERAD in attendance but over the next few years the CFA said that a total cessation of scallop dredging in the Bay would, they feel, be the thin edge of the wedge and refused to sign up to it. We feel that only by continued dialogue and building up of trust on both sides was the possibility of a deal finally brokered by the Scottish Parliaments Environment and Rural Development Committee in Holyrood itself. This was after the Minister Finnie had sat on his hands trying to tell both sides that the only way forward was a voluntary deal between both sides. Something that we and fortunately the CFA both knew would be a waste of time. If you want a MPA you are going to have to meet and deal with fishermen. All will not be against what you want but the majority will. Until they can see with their own eyes the positive effects which happen outside NTZs. some will say "Over my dead body" and always will. Remember you don’t have to persuade all of them. Just enough to let the politicians and civil servants move the proposal forward. If you are going to meet with fishermen you have to have some knowledge of their fishing methods. You need to find out as much as you can from books and the Web and then if possible ask to go out to sea on a fishing boat for the odd day. Not easy but it’s a lot easier in the middle of negotiations if you do know what you are talking about and you will understand the fishermen’s point of view much better.
	NGOs Non Governmental Organisations like MCS , WWF , RSPB and Greenpeace can be excellent for helping and giving advice. All 4 of these organisations have helped COAST and offered advice - some which we took, others we didn’t or haven’t used yet. Contact them and let them know what you are trying to do. Calum from MCS as we have said before trained us in Seasearch and helped rewrite our proposals. Remember they have their own agenda which in my experience never comes from the local community’s point of view. Use their expertise but don’t become one of them, You are not another environmental NGO, you are a community organisation wanting a MPA/NTZ. That is where your strength in dealing with government and their advisers comes from. The Law You will need good legal advice and you will find that there are very few lawyers that know anything about the laws of the sea & fishing, the ones that do are already working for the fishermen’s organisations. COAST are very fortunate in that many years ago we came across Tom Appleby a Bristol based Lawyer who has help us for many years. Tom’s work behind the scenes has been invaluable, checking out fact from complete fantasy. Tom has on our behalf kept SEERAD and the fishermen’s lawyers on their toes forcing them to admit one or two things they would have rather kept hidden. HW