The hybrid meeting was held at UHI Shetland Scalloway campus on February 13th 2026, and marked an pivotal milestone in this collaborative process. Over the past year, the LSWG have been working together to develop ideas and monitoring plans focused on collecting more data on marine mammals within the Shetland and Fair Isle Important Marine Mammal Area. This meeting provided an opportunity to share updates on data collection, and also a chance to focus on how we might co-manage the area going forwards. We discussed the various types of co-management and co-ownership schemes, and formulated a plan to develop a local Marine Mammal Working Group going forwards, that would sit within the governance structures provided by the Shetland Islands Regional Marine Planning Partnership. This would allow for collaborative co-management beyond the end date of the BLUE CONNECT project, providing an important legacy to this work.
We also validated the draft Blueprint Tools that have been built by BLUE CONNECT, which are aimed at strengthening science-based and participatory ocean governance. Checking the tools make sense and are useful to the LSWG ensures that the tools reflect local and regional realities, practical needs, and stakeholder perspectives.
