Hamza and the Hope Spot

Hope Spots are springing up around the world - but what are they? Countryfile presenter and wildlife cameraman Hamza Yassin lives in the heart of one in Argyll, literally on the 'spot'. Here's what he found

- Megan Shersby

A long the west coast of Scotland, a section of the coastline and oceans is being highlighted as a place of wonder- and held up as a beacon of hope. Earlier this year, a Countryfile episode covered the Argyll coastline in the west of Scotland and its designation as the first Hope Spot in mainland UK.

Selected by Mission Blue, the non-profit organisation founded by the renowned marine biologist and oceanographer Sylvia Earle, Hope Spots are ocean and coastal locations that have been identified as particularly special places.

Hope Spots are championed by local communities and conservation charities, and form a network of marine protected areas across the world. To date, there are 154 Hope Spots, which cover an area of more than 57 million square kilometres of ocean. Other well-known Hope Spots include the Galápagos Islands and Australia's Great Barrier Reef.

And who better to present this celebration of Argyll than local resident and new Countryfile presenter Hamza Yassin? Having moved to Ardnamurchan a few years ago, Yassin has fallen for the area and its wildlife, and loves sharing them with the nation on Sunday nights.

When Countryfile covered the Hope Spot, it honed in on a couple of key species - including the enormous and relatively unknown flapper skate. Once referred to as the common skate, taxonomy work revealed that there were actually two distinct species - one which was then named the flapper skate, and the other named the blue skate.

"I wanted to cover the species that people are not going to likely see. And most people have never heard of a flapper skate," he explains enthusiastically.

"These rays are huge - massive! Three metres in length, that's bigger than me! We don't know how many there are. And most people wouldn't know about them because they're under the water in our seas - it's out of sight, out of mind for most people."