Fisheries management measures within Scottish Offshore Marine Protected Areas (MPAs): consultation

5. Sites within the Faroese Special Area

Wyville-Thomson Ridge SAC and Darwin Mounds SAC both partially overlap “the Special Area”. This is an area of shared jurisdiction between the UK, the government of the Faroe Islands and the Kingdom of Denmark and subject to an international treaty.

These SACs were designated under the EU process whereby the designation of a site required agreement from all member states, which included the UK and the Kingdom of Denmark.

In 2013 a Protocol to the Agreement reiterated the shared interest of the parties in protecting the marine environment. Within the Special Area each party may manage their fisheries independently, therefore measures implemented by Scottish Ministers in the areas of overlap would not apply to vessels which are exclusively Faroe Islands-regulated.

The West of Scotland NCMPA overlaps the Special Area, but also the Faroese continental shelf. Scottish Ministers do not have Ministerial jurisdiction in the Faroese continental shelf. Whilst the SACs mentioned above were designated under the EU process with agreement from all member states, as an NCMPA, West of Scotland NCMPA was designated under UK legislation. To resolve this overlap with the Faroese continental shelf, an amendment to the boundary is proposed which would grant Scottish Ministers full jurisdiction over the NCMPA.