CONSERVATIONISTS are calling for an area of sea off the West Highlands to be closed for fishing, to protect a precious coral-like seaweed which grows at the rate of only one millimetre a year.

The "maerl" forms a special seabed habitat, according to the Scottish Wildlife Trust (SWT) which says a new survey strengthens the case for large areas of the Wester Ross Marine Protected Area (MPA) to be closed to potentially damaging fishing such as scallop dredging and bottom trawling.

Thirty MPAs were created earlier this year and the Scottish Government is consulting on plans to prohibit fishing on certain sea floor habitats within them.

The SWT survey identified new maerl beds near Wester Ross: off the SWT Ben Mor Coigach Wildlife Reserve; off Isle Martin; and near the Rhue Lighthouse at the mouth of Loch Broom.

But the survey failed to find previously-recorded maerl beds in an area of the Summer Isles, in the mouth of Loch Broom, that had seen the largest amount of scallop dredging in recent years.

Alex Kinninmonth, living seas policy officer for the Scottish Wildlife Trust, said: "Now that these fragile habitats are on the map they must be included in protection plans."

But Bertie Armstrong, chief executive of the Scottish Fishermen's Federation, said the new MPAs were on top of 150 other marine sites that were already protected.

He said: "Whilst it is difficult to comment specifically upon this apparent new find of maerl beds, the very fact that they might be there would seem to suggest that any fishing activities in the area are having no impact upon them.

"As a more general point and to make a comparison, if every natural feature on land was fully protected, then we would have no houses, roads, farms or any other kind of infrastructure that our lives depend upon."