Scottish Marine and Freshwater Science Volume 5 Number 17: ScotMap Inshore Fisheries Mapping in Scotland: Recording Fishermen's use of the Sea

1. Background and Policy Context

The Marine (Scotland) Act 2010 brought into force a new statutory marine planning system to manage the usage of Scotland's seas. The Act requires the Scottish Government to develop a National Marine Plan ( NMP) and introduces general duties to protect and enhance the marine environment whilst allowing for sustainable economic development. Scotland's National Marine Plan provides direction regarding a wide range of marine usage decisions, including the management of human impacts, offshore renewable energy development, fisheries, aquaculture, ports and harbours and nature conservation designations.

Marine planning in Scotland will be implemented at a local level and will require the development of regional plans. Scottish Government consulted on the draft Scottish Marine Regions ( SMRs) in 2013 but the definitive geographic boundaries of the statutory marine regions have yet to be formally adopted. Regional Marine Plans will be developed by Marine Planning Partnerships to take account of local circumstances and smaller ecosystem units.

Regional marine planning is being piloted in the Pentland Firth and Orkney Waters ( PF& OW). The purpose of the pilot spatial plan is to inform use of the sea in a manner which minimises spatial conflict between marine users and takes account of cumulative effects of multiple activities. An initial Marine Spatial Plan Framework and draft Regional Locational Guidance for PF& OW was published by Scottish Government in 2013. The Framework document sets out a three stage process for the development of regional marine plans. It contains a summary of existing information on different uses of the sea and shows how these may impact on each other. It also includes recommendations for future data collection, assessment and research, to ensure that the Plan is properly underpinned by relevant and good quality information, and sets out how the Plan should be developed. One of the data gaps identified in the Framework document is the spatial distribution of inshore fishing. In order to address this, Marine Scotland carried out a study in the PF& OW piloting an interview based approach, known as ScotMap. Following the successful completion of the pilot study, ScotMap was rolled out in other areas around the coast of Scotland.