Even areas of seabed badly damaged by scallop dredging can eventually begin to recover, a new scientific paper has found.

A new paper, published in international journal Sustainable Environment using research by marine conservation charity Open Seas, highlights the profound, long-lasting damage caused by a single instance of scallop dredging in a fragile marine ecosystem in north-west Scotland, charting how life only began to return to the area over many years.

The research comes ahead of a planned Scottish Government consultation on future protections for key marine habitats and species, with Open Seas urging ministers to act to protect fragile environments from further destruction.

Considered one of the most destructive fishing methods, scallop dredging involves dragging heavy gear along the bottom of the seabed to pull up scallops. But while the short-term effects of dredging are well documented, long-term recovery remains poorly understood due to the lack of undisturbed reference sites.

The research took place in an area off the eastern side of Eilean Dubh, an island of the Summer Isles archipelago in the northwest of Scotland, which is rich in biodiversity and home to protected features, including kelp forests, maerl beds and flame shell reefs.

But while the waters around the Summer Isles were designated as a marine protected area in 2014, with scallop dredging banned from 2016, an incidence of illegal dredging took place in July 2019, causing extensive damage to the habitat and killing species which lived there.

By using a combination of diver-based camera surveys and remotely operated vehicle (ROV) surveys, with an underwater drone, the study charts how the marine environment responded year-on-year.

While the study found that, after five years of protection, wildlife has begun to return to the dredged area, key habitat-forming species remained absent, and the eco-system continuing to reflect a disturbed state compared to an untouched site nearby.

It found that, three years after it was dredged, signs of recovery were evident, both in terms of diversity and abundance of life, with burrowing anemones one of the first species to return.

By five years post-dredging, further recovery was recorded, with the overall diversity estimated to be two-thirds of that in the control site.

But while algae and a variety of basic invertebrates began to return to the area, multiple species of echinoderms (species including starfish, sea urchins and sea cucumbers) had not returned, while Maerl - a slow growing algae, similar to coral, classified as a priority marine feature- was also still absent.

The Scottish Government introduced a network of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) over a decade ago, to protect key habitats and species, as well as to ensure nursery grounds for commercial species were left intact.

But while areas were designated as MPAs, very few management measures restricting fishing practices were ever introduced, meaning that scallop dredging and bottom-trawling can still take place in the majority of fragile marine eco-systems.

With ministers set to consult on new protections for inshore environments, the charity called for action to protect key marine habitats from destructive fishing practices, to boost biodiversity and allow fish stocks to recover.

Ahead of the Scottish Government announcing its new Programme for Government next month, Open Seas called on ministers to bring forward a long-promised, long-delayed consultation on new protections for inshore environments in order for ministers to meet obligations under environmental law.

The study follows a new report from Environmental Standards Scotland, the national environmental watchdog, finding the Scottish Government failed its legal duty to protect the seabed.

The ESS report finds failings in the Scottish Government’s approach to planning, its monitoring of the health of the seabed and its governance, pointing to repeated delays in implementing measures, fragmented responsibility across government and inconsistent application of marine environmental duties.

Anna Safryghin, Open Seas research manager and lead author of the paper, said: “By returning year on year, our study allowed us to track the long-term consequences of scallop dredging on the seabed, showing that even half a decade is not enough time for complex marine communities to recover from a single incident of illegal fishing.

“For the first year, the site lay almost barren, and while we saw some opportunistic species return by year three, vital habitat-forming species like maerl remain absent to this day, leaving behind a simplified ecosystem. This has profound consequences to how that habitat functions, how it provides nutrients and shelter to other species way beyond the dredged area.

“This study is a clear signal that we cannot take the resilience of our oceans for granted, underscoring the urgent need for robust enforcement within our protected areas, alongside the urgent expansion of these protections to other vulnerable Scottish waters to prevent irreversible damage to our marine heritage.

“This site is now protected, but the vast majority of other, comparable areas, are not. We need to act now, to stop more damage being done elsewhere.”

ENDS

Notes to editor:

Full paper available here: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/27658511.2026.2701493#abstract

ESS report: https://environmentalstandards.scot/our-work/our-analytical-work/protecting-scotlands-seafloor-an-assessment-of-scottish-ministers-implementation-of-the-marine-strategy-regulations-2010

The two images offer a comparison. One shows the site in the days after being dredged, with track marks visible, and the other shows a healthy comparable site nearby.

For media inquiries please contact: Liam@openseas.org.uk / Tel: 07878827565

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