Flapper Skate protection: NatureScot advice to the Scottish Government

Conservation importance

There are several factors that contribute to our conclusion that this site is of high conservation importance. This is the first flapper skate egg-laying habitat to be identified in Scotland. The number and density of eggs is an indication of its use by multiple animals over multiple years. Despite considerable survey effort, the number of locations where skate eggs have been recorded is low, and in most of these, few eggs have been recorded. Targeted searches in Argyll (by Seasearch and the University of St Andrews / Marine Scotland Science) where there are large numbers of adult skate and Orkney (by the Orkney Skate Trust) where hundreds of empty, hatched flapper skate egg cases wash ashore every year have so far been unable to detect anything directly comparable.

Small groups of eggs have been reported from Orkney, Shetland, Loch Craignish (EMFF surveys), Orkney (Orkney Skate Trust) and the Firth of Lorn (recreational diver reports). We re-examined the footage collected in 2018 and 2019 via the MS-led EMFF environmental monitoring project and can confirm that similar numbers of eggs (i.e. numbers of eggs per 100 m visible on DDV footage compared to similar sampling undertaken in the Inner Sound area) were observed on suitable habitat on single DDV runs in Shetland and at the mouth of Loch Craignish in 2019 (see Annex 1, Figures 1 and 2 for further details). Note that in contrast to the Inner Sound, there have been no follow up diver studies at these other locations to put the DDV observations into context.

Our view is that the egg-laying habitat in the Inner Sound is of national importance for flapper skate. The locations in Shetland and Loch Craignish also have the potential to be of national importance and we are considering what further work could be done to determine this.