Marine Protected Areas in Scotland


In Scotland, Marine Protected Areas are areas of sea defined so as to protect to habitats, wildlife, geology, undersea landforms, historic shipwrecks, and to demonstrate sustainable management of the sea. As of December 2018, approximately 22% of Scotland's seas were covered by the Scottish MPA network.

Designation

As of December Scotland's MPA network comprises 231 sites protected by a variety of different conservation designations, many of which are the same as those used on land, such as Special Protection Areas and Sites of Special Scientific Interest. The legal framework differs depending on the designation: for example SSSIs are designated under the Nature Conservation Act 2004. Where not designated under other conservation legislation MPAs are designated under one of two acts of parliament, depending on their location:
Sites are designated as MPAs under these acts for one of three purposes:
In addition to the statutory MPAs, five sites are recognised as forming part of the Scottish MPA network, being categorised as "other area based measures": such areas, although not specifically created for nature conservation purposes, are considered to contribute to the protection of marine biodiversity. The makeup of the current network is detailed in the table below:

Management

The lead body for management of the MPAs is Marine Scotland. For nature conservation sites within territorial waters Scottish Natural Heritage is responsible for developing the network and providing scientific advice to Scottish Government on the selection of sites, and providing advice to Marine Scotland on management once sites are designated. The Joint Nature Conservation Committee fulfils this role for sites in offshore waters, and also has a coordinating role for nature conservation in all the UK's offshore waters. Historic Environment Scotland is responsible for historic MPAs.
Activities undertaken in an MPA can be managed through voluntary measures, or by implementation of Marine Conservation Orders or Inshore Fishing Orders. Management measures may be in place for all or part of an MPA, and may only apply at certain times of year. Environmental groups have criticised the government for failing to enforce fishing rules around MPAs.

List of MPAs

These tables list those MPAs not covered by other designations as of August 2019.

Historic MPAs

Nature Conservation MPAs

Demonstration and Research MPA

There is one Demonstration and Research MPA, in the waters surrounding Fair Isle. The MPA was designated on 9 November 2016. The aims of this MPA designation are defined as being:

Other area based measures

Proposed NCMPAs

During 2019 SNH commenced a consultation exercise to consider whether four new areas should be designated as Nature Conservation MPAs, with the having closed on 30 August 2019. The four sites being considered are:
Two further Historic MPAs are also proposed as of 2019, with an Historic Environment Scotland consultation exercise having closed on 27 November. The two proposed sites are: