As part of becoming an Ullapool Sea Saver, the young people choose a species they are especially interested in and go and research it, putting together a fact file to share what they discover with others. By doing so they become an Ambassador for ‘their’ species. We try to find mentors and specialists from other groups and organisations that they can speak to who can advise on and verify the content for them, encouraging them to fully understand the importance of their chosen species and also help with advice on how best to help promote and protect that species.

 

The Nature Champion Initiative launched by Scottish Environment encourages Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) to lend political support to the protection of Scotland’s threatened wildlife by becoming ‘Nature Champions.’ This is a great scheme that means that nature, and specific species, are represented at the Scottish Parliament (example here). Where possible, we connect our sea saver Ambassadors to their MSP Nature Champion counterpart.

Linking the USS Ambassadors with their counterpart Nature Champions at Holyrood has led to some great support from MSPs when it comes to campaigning, such as Maree Todd MSP (then Minister for Children and Young People, who is also from Ullapool which helped!) becoming the Flame Shell Species Champion and working closely with Caillin who is Flame Shell Ambassador for USS. This resulted in a lot of correspondence over our Marine Protected Area that includes Flame Shells as one of the protected species, and also saw Maree support calls for Lochcarron to be given permanently Protected Status following a dredger causing serious damage to an extensive Flame Shell bed there. On the day Lochcarron was permanently designated an MPA, Maree joined Caillin and other groups who had been campaigning to protect this important area and snorkelled the loch with us.

Similarly, Gail Ross (then MSP for our region) took on the role of Seagrass Species Champion and helped USS campaign against plans to allow Mechanical Kelp Extraction (Dredging!) to be given the go ahead in Scotland. More on that campaign here. https://ullapoolseasavers.com/what-we-do/campaigns/nokelpdredge

Our Otter Ambassador, Poppy, was quite upset to discover than although otter are undoubtedly one of Scotland's iconic animals (they are even on our bank notes!), they had no MSP Champion at Holyrood. She approached Kate Forbes MSP (then about to become Cabinet Secretary for Finance) and asked if she would become a spokesperson for otters, with support from the Living Seas Project and Scottish Wildlife Trust. Kate agreed, and we joined her in Skye to visit the International Otter Survival Foundation https://www.otter.org/Public/ headquarters, and even met some orphaned otters to celebrate Kate's new role (more on that story here ) This is the first time we know of a kid helping establish a new Species Champion.

Other great interactions have included Brian Whittle MSP (and former European and Olympic Athlete!) giving Arwen a dive sign for Sea Turtles - the species they both represent.

We love being able to make these links between the kids and politicians as it creates a meaningful bond between what they do on the ground locally and what can be achieved politically when required. Not only do the politicians tend to back our calls for help, but we are able to feed positively into their understanding of what is needed to help protect the amazing wildlife we all love.