Community Association of Lochs and Sounds (CAOLAS)
CAOLAS (also Gaelic for ‘narrow neck of water’) stands for the Loch Sunart and Sound of Mull ‘Community Association of Lochs and Sounds’. CAOLAS came together in 2015 following the designation of Loch Sunart and the Sound of Mull as Marine Protected Areas. It aims to raise awareness of the unique marine environment and to encourage community involvement in its protection, preservation and sustainability. In 2017 CAOLAS was formally constituted as a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (SCIO).
Since then, CAOLAS have been developing a programme of education and activities – with local and national expertise – that shows people what wonderful marine life there is in Loch Sunart and the Sound of Mull. CAOLAS also run the Lochaline Native Oyster Project, which aims to restore native oysters to Lochaline. Up to 20,000 native oysters will be grown in suspended cages beneath floating pontoons until sufficiently mature and then released onto the Lochaline seabed in areas where they were formerly found.