Community and industry leaders are opposed to the proposals, which could impose restrictions on farming, fishing and development.
They claim the move is being pushed by English-born settlers who have little concern for the economic viability of the area and would rather create “their own private Brigadoon”.
Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) has been assessing sites for a marine and coastal national park and next month it will present the Scottish executive with a shortlist.
It is understood that a preferred site for the park, to be created by 2008, would stretch from Mallaig in the north to Crinan in the south, taking in Coll, Tiree, Oban and parts of Skye and Jura.
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However, there is growing opposition to the move. A public meeting in Fort William tonight will bring together the opposing sides. Chaired by Cameron McNeish, the writer and mountaineer, it is expected to be stormy.
John Hermes, of the Mallaig & North-West Fishermen’s Association, said:
“We have pervasive in-vogue environmentalism perpetrated by incomers, a Brigadoon shortbread tin mob who forget that we managed the land and sea for generations and did a good job . . . An imposition by cultural imperialists in the name of the environment is totalitarianism.
“What is really going on is incomers displacing local people by selling up for a million in the south and buying into the Highlands for a couple of hundred thousand.”
One of the organisations active in trying to establish the park is the Hebridean Marine National Park Partnership, chaired by Mark Carter, an English-born former policeman, who lives near Oban. He condemned Hermes’s remarks. “We represent all elements of the community,” he said.
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The executive has insisted that the sustainable economic and social development of coastal communities would be the key aim of the new park. An executive spokeswoman said: “Once SNH presents its findings to ministers there will be a long period of formal consultation.”