In 2017, emergency measures were introduced on nearby Loch Carron after a dredger caused significant damage to a large flame shell reef.<\/p>\n
The reef had been discovered five years earlier and was estimated to contain about 250 million flame shells.<\/p>\n
Subsequent dives to the seabed revealed the extent of the damage but the skipper involved had legally done nothing wrong because the site contained no restrictions.<\/p>\n
That wasn’t the case though at Loch Alsh where an MPA has been in place since 2014.<\/p>\n
One of the boats involved in the Loch Alsh incident, the Dawn Maid, is part owned by Mull-based businessman Calum MacLachlainn.<\/p>\n
He told BBC Scotland news that he wanted answers from Marine Scotland on why his skipper was given incorrect information by fisheries officers.<\/p>\n
He added: “Both skippers involved acted on advice given to them.<\/p>\n
“I was told a number of years ago by Marine Scotland to check with local fishery officers if there was any ambiguity at all.”<\/p>\n
Mr MacLachlainn said he would welcome a discussion with the fisheries authority.<\/p>\n
The Scottish government confirmed it had received a report of illegal fishing, adding: “We can confirm we are investigating an incident in the Loch Alsh area over the weekend.”<\/p>\n
The spokesperson was asked specifically about reports that fishermen had been given incorrect information to which they added: “As this is a live investigation the Scottish Government is not able to comment further.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In 2017, emergency measures were introduced on nearby Loch Carron after a dredger caused significant damage to a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":469886,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3843],"tags":[728,70,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-469885","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-science","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115307703025204598","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=469885"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469885\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/469886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=469885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=469885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=469885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}