Blue Hope Alliance: Rewilding Northwest Highland Coastlines

The beautiful land of Scotland meets the ocean in some of the most stunning seascapes on our planet. Both the inshore and offshore waters here make up 13% of all European seas and are home to more than 8,000 species. Our Alliance Partner the Blue Hope Alliance, is a voluntary coalition of citizen scientists, fishers, divers, artists and storytellers, community groups and marine stakeholders, working together to give a louder voice to the restoration of Scotland’s inshore seas.

Born from community action

The Alliance evolved out of the community led campaign begun in 2014 to ban bottom trawling and scallop dredging in the Wester Ross Marine Protected Area (MPA).

During the campaign, creel and dive fishermen and community joined together and achieved this dredge ban in 2015, securing the world’s largest “Maerl’ MPA with nearly 600 sq km protected. Once this was achieved, the Alliance was born.

Inspired by indigenous and traditional highland ways of being in relationship with Nature, the Alliance now conducts underwater surveys to protect and restore the ‘blue’ ecosystems along the Northwest Highland coastline. Their aim is to then share this evidence with the science community and policy makers, as well as the public in stories, films and events.

The Blue Hope Alliance weaves together the specialist knowledge, passion and practical skills of each member of the Alliance. From seasoned fishers, camera-equipped divers, and fishery board specialists, to passionate community groups protecting and surveying their local sea lochs, supported by marine scientists offering their time pro bono. Every contribution enriches the collective effort to love, protect, and rewild what lies below the waves.

The Story of Maerl, a keystone habitat supporting the web of marine life

Maerl is one of the most precious species in the UK’s marine natural heritage, as well as globally. It forms the most ancient biogenic habitat in European waters, with some beds carbon-dated back to the last ice age. Keystone habitats like Maerl define the entire web of life within an ecosystem, holding food webs together through a disproportionate ecological influence.

Without them, these marine ecosystems would be dramatically different or even cease to function altogether.

Scotland’s western seabeds once had many more of these pink, twiggy, crocheted carpets of Maerl, fostering one of the world’s most biodiverse habitats and supporting rich fisheries.

Today, much of it is gone.

Maerl is as fragile as fine bone china and among our most endangered Priority Marine Features, growing at around 1mm per year into brittle, twiggy matrices sometimes metres thick – it is home to a dazzling array of species.

Blue Hope Alliance are using underwater surveys to capture breathtaking footage, and detailed observations to use as scientific evidence for greater protection.

They are mapping Maerl habitats, tracking changes over time, and sharing this evidence with government agency scientists, educators and policymakers. Their work aims to inform conservation measures and secure the restoration and protection of these magical marine habitats.

The relationship between marine ecosystems, industrial fishing, and the ocean’s role as a natural carbon sink is outlined in “Fisheries and Marine Carbon Processes in the Context of Climate Change”.

The Blue Hope Alliance contributed to our collection of case studies of Alliance Partners engaging in ecosystem-based marine management, showing practical examples of initiatives taken to curb the negative effects of the fishing industry.

National Lottery Heritage Fund

The National Lottery Heritage Fund recently awarded funding to BHA’s project, “Scotland’s Hidden Reefs: Saving Maerl, Herring and Underwater Ecosystems through Citizen Science, Advocacy and Storytelling.”

Using money raised by National Lottery players, The National Lottery Heritage Fund supports projects that connect people and communities with the UK’s heritage.Thanks to the National Lottery players the Blue Hope Alliance’s marine restoration project will help secure the UK’s marine heritage for the future of regional fisheries, ecosystems, and our coastal cultural heritage.

In this way they intend to revitalise what was Scotland’s traditional cultural connection with nature. The National Lottery Heritage Fund will also ensure their digital archive will be made fully accessible to the communities of the northwest for public and scientific engagement.

For, at the heart of the project, is the creation of the first community-owned, open-source underwater photographic archive — a heritage legacy to inspire generations and serve science as well as conservation.

To celebrate a decade of citizen science surveying, and protection for the Wester Ross Marine Protected Area (MPA) the Blue Hope Alliance has produced a report on the condition of Maerl in the MPA and across the region: The conservation status of maerl habitats in northwest Scotland.

This report is funded in part by NatureScot and is part of the National Lottery Heritage Fund Project to restore Maerl and Herring. It has been examined by Professor Hall Spencer – a world leading expert on Maerl – and documents 10 years of Maerl condition in the area.

Although Maerl is the primary habitat which the MPA was set up to recover, the report provides evidence of its decline.

These results drive the force of the Alliance to share them widely in newsletters and national press as well as conservation networks and events such as the Maerl Herring Festival in September 2026. The mission is to advocate for action.

Interconnectivity: the power of relationships

The Blue Hope Alliance values cooperation and interconnectivity, believing an emphasis on relationship between multiple groups and perspectives -as well as other species – can drive long term  change. Building relationships can take time, but they believe that this is where the true power of change happens.

The Alliance’s ultimate task is to rebuild our culture’s connection and relationship with the natural world – for indigenous people and traditional Highlanders worked “with” Nature yet that circle of relations was broken.

Creating a network for nature, which takes a holistic, ecosystem approach is a movement to repair that broken relationship. By building a coastline-wide network, they use a holistic ecosystem approach to unify diverse perspectives, invest in restoration, and achieve lasting grassroots impact.

Beyond collecting photographic data from the seabed, the team celebrates discoveries through storytelling, film, and creative community engagement, inviting everyone to fall in love with and be a part of the underwater world.

As Jane Goodall once said, “Only if we understand, will we care. Only if we care, will we help.”

Blue Hope Alliance is a witness to the power of passionate volunteers working together to amplify the community voice for marine life. This tapestry of different voices builds a community with curiosity, compassion and resilient action. Reminding us that rewilding the sea is a shared endeavour, and a responsibility for us all to become care takers – for the hidden ecosystems beneath the waves underpin the well being of both current and future generations.