Howard Wood

Howard Wood spearheaded a campaign that established the first community-developed Marine Protected Area in Scotland, giving citizens a voice in a debate that has been dominated by the commercial fishing industry.

The Firth of Clyde was once known for plentiful fishing of herring, cod, haddock, and turbot. Small-scale traditional fishing provided a source of livelihood for generations of families in the Clyde and Arran, who were able to fish sustainably thanks to long-standing laws that banned practices that towed fishing gear along the seabed.

However, growing international demand for seafood and sustained lobbying by powerful commercial fishing interests in the 1980s led the British government to repeal various seabed protection measures. Coupled with technological advances in fishing, the new industry-friendly policies opened up the Firth of Clyde to the more destructive fishing practices.

Fisheries quickly collapsed, and the industry moved on to exploit what little remained of marine resources in the area: scallops and prawns.

The commercial fishing industry began indiscriminately plowing through the seabed with scallop dredges, repeatedly passing over the same area to maximize their catch. They damaged the seafloor and maimed coral and kelp forests—vital nursery grounds for fish and shellfish—crippling the habitat necessary for a healthy marine ecosystem.

Howard Wood was a teenager when his family moved back to the Isle of Arran, where his father spent much of his youth. He worked at the family’s plant nursery and spent his free time diving in the local waters, marveling at the sea life below. Over the course of hundreds of dives a year, he witnessed firsthand the destruction of marine wildlife brought on by irresponsible fishing practices.

In 1989, Don MacNeish, a close friend who often joined Wood on his dives, came back from a trip to New Zealand enthused about the Marine Protected Areas he had seen there. He and Wood decided they would establish similar areas of marine conservation around Arran.

Wood and his friend used their own personal savings and in 1995, co-founded the Community of Arran Seabed Trust (COAST), a citizen group of volunteer activists committed to protecting the local marine environment. While Wood had no formal training as an environmental activist, he understood his responsibility as a member of the tight-knit community in Arran to restore and protect a resource that had been a source of cultural identity—and economic sustainability—for the people on the island.