CCN Newsletter #63

Welcome to our latest CCN members

We are delighted to announce that three new community groups have joined CCN over the last month, bringing us up to a total of 23 members now! This includes:

The Ecology Centre (Kinghorn, Fife)
Charlestown, Limekilns and Pattiesmuir Nature Conservation Group (Fife)
East Haven Together (East Haven, Angus)

We also welcome Snorkel Wild as a new Friend of CCN. Snorkel Wild are based on the stunning Berwickshire coast in the South East of Scotland.

CCN Slack Workspace and Twitter

Since coming into post I have focussed on streamlining communications within the CCN and diversifing our social media presence. If you are on Twitter please follow us: @CCNScotland.

I have also set CCN up with a Slack Workpsace. The workspace includes dedicated 'Channels' focused on different topics, to allow you to find and collaborate with others interested in the same things as you. If you are part of a CCN member group, or Friend of CCN, please get in touch about joining our our workspace. I am on hand to help you get set up.

CCN Forum updates

Aquaculture
Members of the aquaculture group met with Marine Scotland on two occasions this last month. The first was to express our reaction to the recently published Griggs Review into the regulatory framework governing aquaculture. As outlined in the last newsletter, we were not impressed by many of the recommendations and intend to write to the Cabinet Secretary, Mairi Gougeon, to press to reject them.

The second meeting was to find out more about the Scottish Government's Vision for Aquaculture that will be procuded by the end of this year. CCN will be engaging further on both of these developments.

Restoration
Last month CCN launched the Restoration Forum to kickstart discussions and learning around seagrass and native oyster restoration activities. This follows on a recent report I produced for FFI on the potential for a shared vision for marine restoration in Scotland. This group will be meeting on a monthly basis.

Highly Protected Marine Areas
CCN members met with Marine Scotland on the upcomig HPMA process as they sought to gather initial views. The Bute House Agreement commits the Scottish Government to designating 10% Scottish seas as highly protected by 2026. The development of site selection criteria will be underway over the summer and CCN will be heavily engaged with this - especially since we have been told communities can propose sites they deem important for ecosystem function.

Volunteer opportunities with the Berwickshire Marine Reserve

The BMR are recruiting a team of volunteer Marine Rangers for the summer to help with education and outreach and assist with some research projects. The ad can be found here. They are also looking for new Trustees to drive forward the charity – please email info@berwickshiremarinereserve.org.uk.

Job opportunity with COAST

COAST are advertising for a Visitor Engagement and Admin Assistant to help with the day-to-day running of the Discovery Centre in Lamlash. Closing date is 7th April. Please share the ad widely!

Seawilding launch seagrass restoration video series

Seawilding have launched a series of practical how-to videos for restoring seagrass on the Seawilding website. If you’re keen to learn how to survey, harvest, process, and plant this carbon sequestering, biodiversity enhancing wonder plant ... it’s all there!

Community Marine Biodiversity Monitoring Equipment Fund

Run by NatureScot, the Equipment Fund is still open and accepting applications on a rolling basis. Information about the Equipment Fund and how to apply. Please share this funding opportunity widely among your networks.

The CCN Community Support Fund

The Community Support Fund is a dedicated small grant fund operated by Fauna & Flora International to support member groups of the Coastal Communities Network. Grants can be sought by Network members for discrete projects, to build the capacity or governance of a group, or to support learning and development. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis and there is no deadline - feel free to get in touch to discuss ideas!

In case you missed it!

We are always looking for ideas for blogs or blog contributions. Send them to info@communitiesforeas.scot

We continually update our Privacy Policy in line with the GDPR regulations dated 25th May 2018, and we will continue to review the website privacy policies as required. This newsletter is created via Mailchimp - find their Privacy Policy here. To unsubscribe, follow the link at the end of this email.