Key Scottish Environment Statistics 2014

Marine - Footnotes

1) The number of bathing waters identified in Scotland has not remained constant in the period 1988 to 2013. There were 23 identified bathing waters in the period 1988-98, but this number has since increased to 83 in 2013. Three of the 83 designated waters are inland waters, which have all complied with the bathing water standards since designation.

2) The data for the fish stocks are the current best estimates of each stock and not the historic estimates. The full time series is revised for each stock every time an assessment is re-run and although values at the most recent end of the time series may change markedly in some cases, most other values remain stable.

3) Estimates for cod and herring are for the North Sea (NS) stock. Those for haddock and saithe are for the North Sea and West of Scotland (WoS) stock.

4) The size of these fish stocks are affected by several factors, including commercial fishing and other factors such as climate change and success of recruitment.

5) The spawning stock biomass (SSB) is the total weight of mature fish (capable of spawning) in a particular stock.

6) The precautionary biological limit (Bpa) indicates the SSB below which the stock is considered to be at risk of suffering reduced reproductive capacity, indicating that spawning levels may be insufficient to guarantee stock replenishment and that stock abundance will probably decrease. The Bpa for each stock is defined by the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES).

7) The precautionary biological limit for haddock is currently being revised.

8) More information on management measures applied to fishing activity in Scotland can be found by visiting http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/marine/Sea-Fisheries.