Publication - Strategy/plan

Scotland's Marine Atlas: Information for The National Marine Plan

Published: 16 March 2011
Topic: Marine and fisheries
ISBN: 9870755982547

Scotland's Marine Atlas is an assessment of the condition of Scotland's seas, based on scientific evidence from data and analysis and supported by expert judgement.

PROTECTED AREAS

Protection of the marine environment is considered of the highest priority, as reflected by the general duty under the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010, 'to act in the way best calculated to further the achievement of sustainable development including the protection and, where appropriate, enhancement of the health ofthat area, so far as is consistent with the proper execution of that function'.

The Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 as amended by the Nature Conservation (Scotland) Act 2004 provided the mechanism for the designation of Sites of Special Scientific Interest ( SSSI), but these powers only extend down to the limit of mean low water spring tide. At present there are 56 SSSI in Scotland which contain some intertidal and seal features of interest. In addition there are a number of other designations that apply to coastal areas, such as National Parks, National Nature Reserves and National Scenic Areas.

Designated sites

Designated sites

Site of Special Scientific Interest	Intertidal and Seal Features
Ballochmartin Bay	Sand flat
Balranald Bog and Loch nam Feithean	Mudflat
Berwickshire Coast (Intertidal)	Reefs Sea caves
Bogside Flats	Mudflat
Bridgend Flats	Sand flat
Cree Estuary	Mudflat
Cromarty Firth	Mudflat Sand flat Saline lagoon
Dornoch Firth	Eelgrass bed
East Sanday Coast	Reef Mudflat Sand flat Harbour seal
Eden Estuary	Mudflat
Eynhallow	Harbour seal
Faray and Holm of Faray	Grey seal
Firth of Forth	Saline lagoon
Gribun Shore and Crags	Mudflat Saline lagoon
Gruinart Flats	Mudflat
Howmore Estuary, Lochs Roag and Fada	Saline lagoon
Isle of May	Grey seal
Kames Bay	Sand flat
Kentra Bay and Moss	Mudflat
Loch an Duin	Tidal rapids Saline lagoon
Loch Bee	Saline lagoon
Loch Fleet	Eelgrass bed Sand flat
Loch Moidart	Mudflat
Loch nam Madadh	Reefs Mudflat Tidal rapids Saline lagoon
Loch Obisary	Saline lagoon
Loch Siadar	Tidal rapids Saline lagoon
Lochs at Clachan	Saline lagoon
Lochs of Harray and Stenness	Saline lagoon
Longman and Castle Stuart Bays	Eelgrass bed Mudflat
Luskentyre Banks and Saltings	Sand flat
Lynn of Lorn Small Islands	Common seal
Montrose Basin	Mudflat
Mound Alderwoods	Saline lagoon
Mousa	Common seal
Muckle and Little Green Holm	Grey seal
Munlochy Bay	Mudflat
North Fetlar	Grey seal Harbour seal
North Rona and Sula Sgeir	Grey seal
Northton Bay	Saline lagoon Sand flat
Obain Loch Euphoirt	Saline lagoon
Oronsay and South Colonsay	Grey seal
Papa Stour	Reefs
Pool of Virkie	Mudflat
Rosehearty to Fraserburgh Coast	Mudflat
Sandness Coast	Reefs
Small Seal Islands	Grey seal
Sunart	Reefs Eelgrass bed
Taynish Woods	Reefs Tidal rapids
Tayport - Tentsmuir Coast	Mudflat Harbour seal
The Vadills	Tidal rapids Saline lagoon
Tob Valasay	Tidal rapids Saline lagoon
Tong Saltings	Mudflat
Treshnish Isles	Grey seal
Ulva, Danna and the McCormaig Isles	Mudflat Tidal rapids Saline lagoon
Upper Solway Flats and Marshes	Mudflat
Whiteness Head	Mudflat

Natura 2000 sites, Special Protection Areas ( SPA) and Special Areas of Conservation ( SAC) designated respectively under two European directives, Directive 79/409/ EEC (otherwise known as the Birds Directive) and Council Directive 92/43/ EEC (otherwise known as the Habitats Directive) represent some of the very best of Scotland's marine natural heritage.

The Birds Directive provides member states with the responsibility to classify Special Protection Areas to protect birds which are rare, or vulnerable, in Europe as well as all migratory birds which are regular visitors. There are currently 58 SPA in Scotland with marine/coastal components, and of these, 31 of the seabird breeding colony SPA have recently had their boundaries extended by either 1.2 or 4.0km into the adjacent marine environment (marked with an * in the table below). At present there are no entirely marine SPA in Scotland although work is underway to identify areas important for inshore aggregations of non-breeding waterbirds and for offshore aggregations of seabirds. (see jncc website jncc/gov.uk/pdf/SPA_AOS_Maps%2020100304.pdf)

Natura 2000 sites

Natura 2000 sites

Special Protection Areas which are within or have links to the marine environment

The SPAs listed in the table comprise:

1. Sites which support true seabirds i.e. truly marine birds - auks, gulls, terns, petrels, gannets, etc.

2. Sites which support species which, at times, use maritime habitats.

3. Sites which include maritime habitats which are sometimes used by terrestrial species. 'Waterfowl' is used to include seaduck, waders and divers. 'Seabirds' is used to refer to the 24 species of seabirds listed in the Seabirds Section and Mitchell et al. (2004). ¹

Special Protection Areas	Summary interests
Ailsa Craig *	seabirds
Auskerry	seabirds
Buchan Ness to Collieston *	seabirds
Caithness and Sutherland Peatlands	waterfowl
Calf of Eday *	seabirds
Canna & Sanday *	seabirds
Cape Wrath *	seabirds
Copinsay *	seabirds
Cromarty Firth	waterfowl, seabirds
Dornoch Firth & Loch Fleet	waterfowl, seabirds
East Caithness Cliffs *	seabirds
East Sanday Coast	waterfowl
Fair Isle *	seabirds
Fetlar *	seabirds
Firth of Forth	waterfowl
Firth of Tay & Eden Estuary	seabirds, waterfowl
Flannan Isles *	seabirds
Forth Islands *	seabirds
Foula *	seabirds, waterfowl
Fowlsheugh *	seabirds
Glas Eileanan	seabirds
Gruinard Flats	waterfowl
Handa *	seabirds
Hermaness, Saxa Vord & Vallafield *	seabirds, waterfowl
Hoy *	seabirds, waterfowl
Imperial Dock Lock	seabirds
Inner Clyde	waders
Inner Moray Firth	waterfowl, seabirds
Lewis Peatlands	waterfowl
Loch of Strathbeg	waterfowl, seabirds
Marwick Head *	seabirds
Mingulay & Berneray *	seabirds
Mointeach Scadabhaigh	waterfowl
Monach Islands	seabirds
Montrose Basin	waterfowl
Moray & Nairn Coast	waterfowl
Mousa	seabirds
North Caithness Cliffs *	seabirds
North Colonsay & Western Cliffs *	seabirds
North Rona and Sula Sgeir *	seabirds
North Uist Machair & Islands	waterfowl
Noss *	seabirds
Orkney Mainland Moors	waterfowl
Otterswick and Graveland	waterfowl
Papa Stour	seabirds
Papa Westray	seabirds
Pentland Firth Islands	seabirds
Priest Island	seabirds
Ramna Stacks & Gruney	seabirds
Ronas Hill - North Roe & Tingon	waterfowl, seabirds
Rousay *	seabirds
Rum *	waterfowl, seabirds
Shiant Isles *	seabirds
Sleibhtean agus Cladach Thiriodh (Tiree Wetlands and Coast)	waterfowl
South Uist Machair & Lochs	waterfowl, seabirds
St Abb's Head to Fast Castle *	seabirds
St Kilda *	seabirds
Sule Skerry & Sule Stack *	seabirds
Sumburgh Head *	seabirds
Treshnish Isles	seabirds
Troup, Pennan & Lion's Heads *	seabirds
Upper Solway Flats & Marshes	waterfowl
West Westray *	seabirds
Ythan Estuary, Sands of Forvie & Meikle Lochs	waterfowl, seabirds

1 Seabird Populations of Britain and Ireland: Results of the 'Seabird 2000' Census 1999-2002.

The Scottish Government is committed to establishing a well managed, ecologically coherent network of Marine Protected Areas through OSPAR for a number of marine habitats and species considered to be under threat or in decline, as well as others that are representative of Scotland's marine environment.

Scotland has international commitments to establish an ecologically coherent network of Marine Protected Areas ( MPAs) by the end of 2012. Existing protected areas ( SACs, SPAs, SSSIs and Ramsar sites) will make a significant contribution to the network but are limited in their ability to recognise features of national importance in the marine environment. There is considerable overlap between the OSPAR list of threatened and/or declining species and the list of Marine Protected Area search features which have been identified to help underpin the development of the MPA network in Scotland's seas.

The Marine (Scotland) Act 2010 and the UK Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009 both include powers to designate Marine Protected Areas ( MPAs) in the seas around Scotland to enable the network to be completed.

Under the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010 there are three different types of MPAs that can be designated in territorial waters:

Nature Conservation MPAs
Demonstration and Research MPAs
Historic MPAs.

Following the Ministerial Statement on MPAs in March 2010, the Scottish MPA Project was established with the aim of providing advice to Scottish Ministers on the selection of MPAs and development of the MPA network. Identification of MPAs will be carried out by the end of 2012. The Scottish MPA Selection Guidelines set out the selection process and highlight the opportunities for stakeholders to become involved. There will be one network in the seas around Scotland which will contribute towards UK, North-East Atlantic and global networks.

See the Selection Guidelines at www.scotland.gov.uk/marinescotland/mpaguidelines

Species	OSPAR Feature	PA search feature
Arachnanthus sarsi		v
Leptometra celtica		v
Atrina pectinata		v
Glossus humanus		v
Arctica islandica	v	v
Nucella lapillus	v
Ostrea edulis	v
Palinurus elephas		v
Rissa tridactyla	v
Sterna dougalii	v
Cepphus grille		v
Alosa alosa	v
Anguilla anguilla	v
Centroscymus coelolepis	v
Centrophorus squamosus	v
Cetorhinus maximus	v	v
Dipturus batis	v	v
Raja montagui	v
Gadus morhua	v
Hoplostethus atlanticus	v	v
Lamna nasus	v
Raja clavata	v
Molva dypterygia		v
Ammodytes spp.		v
Salmo salar	v
Squalus acanthias	v
Squatina squatina	v
Caretta caretta	v
Dermochelys coriacea	v
Balaenoptera musculus	v
Eubalaena glacialis	v
Phocoena phocoena	v
Balaenoptera acutorostrata		v
Grampus griseus		v
Lagenorhynchus albirostris		v

Habitats	OSPAR Feature	MPA search feature
Coral gardens	v	v
Deep sea sponge aggregations	v	v
Blue mussel beds	v	v
Intertidal mudflats	v
Cold water coral reefs	v
Maerl beds	v	v
Maerl or coarse shell gravel with burrowing sea cucumbers		v
Horse mussel beds	v	v
Native oysters	v	v
Sabellaria spinulosa reefs	v
Seamount communities	v	v
Sea pen and burrowing megafauna communities	v	v
Seagrass beds	v	v
Carbonate mound communities		v
Flame shell beds		v
Inshore deep mud with burrowing heart urchins		v
Kelp and seaweed communities on sublittoral sediment		v
Low or variable salinity habitats		v
Northern sea fan and sponge communities		v
Offshore deep sea muds		v
Offshore subtidal sands and gravel		v
Sea loch egg wrack beds		v
Serpulid aggregations
Shallow tide-swept coarse sands and burrowing bivalves		v
Shelf banks and mounds		v
Shelf deeps		v
Shelf fronts		v
Tide-swept algal communities		v

Summary of condition of marine habitats and species on designated sites in Scotland (as at January 2011)

Feature	Number of features	Number of features assessed	Favourable	Unfavourable recovering	Unfavourable
Habitats	129	96	94	1	1
Mammals	50	49	42	2	5
Species	4	3	3	0	0
Seabirds	470	464	261	12	191
Waterfowl	250	248	208	0	40

Hoy coast

Hoy coast
© John M Baxter

Eden Estuary

Eden Estuary
© John M Baxter

The Habitats Directive is a major contribution by the European Community to implementing the Biodiversity Convention agreed in Rio in 1992. Special Areas of Conservation ( SACs) are designated for particular habitats and species which are listed in annexes to the directive. There are eight habitat types and four species listed on Annexes I and II respectively for which there are marine SACs designated in Scotland. Some sites contain more than one feature. There are currently 34 marine SACs covering ~4% of the total area of territorial waters within 12nm. There are also six offshore SACs that have either been designated or proposed.

Isle of May

Isle of May
© P&A Macdonald/ SNH

Loch of Stenness

Special Areas of Conservation	Interest Features
Ascrib, Isay and Dunvegan	Harbour seals
Berwickshire and North Northumberland coast	Mudflats and sandflats not covered by seawater at low tide Large shallow inlets and bays Reefs Submerged or partially submerged sea caves Grey seals
Braemar Pockmarks	Submarine structures made by leaking gases
Darwin Mounds	Reefs
Dornoch Firth and Morrich More	Estuary Mudflats and sandflats not covered by seawater at low tide Sandbanks which are slightly covered by seawater all the time Reefs Harbour seals Otters*
Eileanan agus Sgeiran Lios mor	Harbour seals
Faray and Holm of Faray	Grey seals
Firth of Lorn	Reefs
Firth of Tay and Eden estuary	Estuary Reefs Mudflats and sandflats not covered by seawater at low tide Harbour seals
Isle of May	Reefs Grey seals
Loch Creran	Reefs
Lochs Duich, Long and Alsh	Reefs
Loch Laxford	Large shallow inlets and bays Reefs
Loch Moidart and Loch Shiel Woods	Mudflats and sandflats not covered by seawater at low tide
Loch nam Madadh	Large shallow inlets and bays Lagoons Reefs Mudflats and sandflats not covered by seawater at low tide Sandbanks which are slightly covered by seawater all the time Otters*
Loch of Stenness	Lagoons
Loch Roag Lagoons	Lagoons
Luce Bay and Sands	Large shallow inlets and bays Mudflats and sandflats not covered by seawater at low tide
Moine Mhor	Mudflats and sandflats not covered by seawater at low tide
Monach Isles	Grey seals
Moray Firth	Sandbanks which are slightly covered by seawater all the time Bottlenose dolphins
Mousa	Reefs Submerged or partially submerged sea caves Harbour seals
North Rona	Reefs Submerged or partially submerged sea caves Grey seals
North West Rockall Bank	Reefs
Obain Loch Euphoirt	Lagoons
Papa Stour	Reefs Submerged or partially submerged sea caves
St Kilda	Reefs Submerged or partially submerged sea caves
Sanday	Reefs Submerged or partially submerged sea caves Sandbanks which are slightly covered by seawater all the time Mudflats and sandflats not covered by seawater at low tide Harbour seals
Scanner Pockmark	Submarine structures made by leaking gases
Solway Firth	Sandbanks which are slightly covered by seawater all the time Estuary Mudflats and sandflats not covered by seawater at low tide Reefs
Sound of Arisaig	Sandbanks which are slightly covered by seawater all the time
South-east Islay Skerries	Harbour seals
South Uist Machair	Lagoons
Stanton Banks	Reefs
Sullom Voe	Reefs Lagoons Large shallow inlets and bays
Sunart	Reefs Otters
The Vadills	Lagoons
Treshnish Islands	Reefs Grey seals
Wyville Thomson Ridge	Reefs
Yell Sound Coast	Harbour seals Otters*

* There are further SACs identified for otters but these are entirely terrestrial and freshwater sites and have no marine component.

Offshore SACs

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