Congratulations

Two of our great friends and supporters are celebrating prestigious awards to round off 2014.

COAST

It gives particular pleasure to congratulate COAST on its 2014 Nature of Scotland Award for Marine Conservation, following as it does the 2013 award achieved by Fair Isle.  Just like FIMETI, COAST is a community-led initiative for sustainable marine management; and its efforts have been almost as long as our own. Our two organisations are very supportive of each other’s aspirations.

The citation reads:

“recognised worldwide as one of the UK’s leading community marine conservation organisations, COAST has been acknowledged for its outstanding work in promoting sustainable marine management around the isle of Arran. The Marine Conservation Award is sponsored by Marine Scotland and the awards are hosted by the RSPB (COAST also reached the shortlist for a Glenfiddich Spirit of Scotland 2014 award).”

COAST's Manager Andrew Binnie said:  “Arran and COAST have been at the forefront of community-led marine conservation for nearly 20 years”.

For more details, visit http://www.arrancoast.com/

BLUE MARINE FOUNDATION

We are delighted to congratulate the Blue Marine Foundation on a thoroughly deserved achievement in being named NGO of the year in the 2014 PEA Awards. BLUE has been a very strong advocate of our initiative for several years; and it is true to say that without their intervention and help Fair Isle could not have put together such a powerful MPA proposal.

The PEA award was in recognition of 'the charity or NGO in the environment/sustainability sector that's really shaking things up - and getting results where they matter most.'

The judges were impressed by the amount that BLUE has achieved in the short time it's been running.  It was also striking that it was the only marine charity represented at the event.  When Charles Clover accepted the award he said that it was our 'sheer tenacity' that had enabled us to help increase the amount of ocean under protection in the world and create the UK's first fully documented sustainable fishery.

The PEA (People Environment & Achievement) Awards, now in its fourth year, reflects a desire to recognise inspirational people who are making a difference to the green agenda and acknowledge their crucial contributions.

BLUE’s response was “to thank all our friends and supporters for helping us to get this far.  We hope that this award will carry us on a wave to achieve even more in the coming year.”

For more details, visit http://www.peaawards.com/

Details of BLUE’s sterling work are to be found at http://www.bluemarinefoundation.com/