Fair Isle Marine Research Organisation (FIMRO)
Cover image © Tommy H Hyndman
Fair Isle has a wide range of maritime attributes and issues which are important and deserve urgent measures for these assets to be safeguarded. The Fair Isle Marine Environment and Tourism Initiative (FIMETI) was set up in 1995 by the people of Fair Isle to help achieve this.
In November 2017 Fair Isle’s seas were designated as the first Demonstration & Research Marine Protected Area (DR MPA) in Scotland. This community-developed site is now set up to research the ecological features and impacts on local seabird populations and the wider marine environment whilst also studying the socio-economic value of a healthy marine environment and partnership-led management. In 2018, the Fair Isle Marine Research Organisation (FIMRO) was established, formally replacing the FIMETI.
Fair Isle’s maritime environment is very rich, both at the natural environment and human community level. The two aspects are inextricably linked and a threat to the first has serious implications for the second. The Fair Isle community has witnessed an erosion of that richness and was concerned that, without concerted action, the resource will be devalued or lost.