A BRITISH navy warship is to be sunk off the coast of Scotland under plans to boost marine tourism by creating the country's first artificial reef for divers.
The Sound of Mull is already the resting place of several historic wrecks, including a warship from a fleet sent by Cromwell in the 17th century to capture Duart Castle.Such artificial reefs have been developed in the US, Canada and Australia, but it would be the first in Scotland and the second in Europe."We need more untrammelled seabed in our congested seas, not less, which would underpin the recovery of our seas, providing wider social and economic benefits from food provision to whale watching."Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) is to provide funding up to pound(s)35,000 for the venture, which will be officially launched this month.A tender for a feasibility study on the project has been issued by the Sound of Mull Artificial Reef Trust (Smart)."Some of them are internationally endangered species, like the Pink sea fan and Devonshire cup corals, and we have got a lot of commercially important species of fish using the wreck, such as pollock and cod."A spokeswoman for HIE said the community tourism project had been inspired by the success of other artificial reefs like the one created by the sinking of HMS Scylla, sunk off the coast near Plymouth in 2004.A sunken ship helps reefs develop rapidly as it encourages coral to grow and marine life to flourish.The study will look at three sites and the economic and environmental impact of the project, which is being driven by Lochaline Dive Centre in Argyll."We carried out detailed monitoring and after five years the number of species had stabilised, but there has been over 150 species of plant life and animal life recorded from the wreck," he said."This type of artificial reef has been developed in a number of countries including the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and the Cayman Islands."Now a project spearheaded by a local diving centre is planning to scuttle a decommissioned modern naval vessel to provide a new underwater tourist attraction.The Sound of Mull is one of Scotland's most famous diving spots along with Scapa Flow in Orkney, where the vessels of the German High Seas Fleet were scuttled following the First World War.Gibson said the entire project had cost around pound(s)300,000, including stripping out the vessel to get it ready for sinking and to satisfy environmental considerations.The vessel was bought from the Ministry of Defence for around pound(s)200,000 by the National Marine Aquarium (NMA) in Plymouth, with the assistance of a local economic development agency."Part of the attraction is that it is a modern ship and it is fairly accessible," he said. "At shallow water the top of it is only about six metres underneath the surface and the deepest it gets is 29 metres, so it is well within sports diving depth limits."A study carried out in the first three years after it was sunk found around 10,000 divers were visiting the new wreck every year, bringing pound(s)2 million a year to the local area.She added: "This could bring similar benefits to the west coast and wider Highlands and Islands.He said: "MCS is generally unconvinced of the marine biodiversity benefits of wreck-sinking, since by aggregating individuals of species that are otherwise more widely dispersed they become easier to catch, and by providing a substrate for life that prefers rock to sand, the end result is loss of wild seabed habitat.Dr David Gibson, managing director of the NMA, said it had been "massively successful" in boosting the diversity of marine life and the local economy.However, Calum Duncan, Scotland programme manager at the Marine Conservation Society (MCS), warned a full assessment of the environmental impact would have to be carried out.
"We need more untrammelled seabed in our congested seas, not less, which would underpin the recovery of our seas, providing wider social and economic benefits from food provision to whale watching."
No comments:
Post a Comment