Scotland’s seas are filled with an astonishing array of marine life, including several rare and threatened species. Many parts of the Scottish coast were previously protected, but the need for greater protection has been evident for some time. In an unprecedented response to this need, Scotland has announced thirty new marine protected areas, both doubling the amount of protected area while greatly increasing the potential for exceptional diving experiences.
Multiple Areas and Species Affected
From the ocean quahog to the common skate, the beautiful black guillemot to the flame shell beds, Scotland’s marine life is being granted new protection thanks to the addition of thirty new marine protected areas. The expanded network includes what is currently Europe’s largest marine protected area, which is situated in the far northeast of the UK’s territorial waters. The Northeast Faroe Islands Shetland Channel is encompassed within the MPA, conserving geologic features and numerous marine species including deep sea sponges.
The cliffs of Caithness are also covered, as are deep ocean habitats, colonies of sand eels, feather stars, and other marine fauna that inhabit the unique cold water reef environments found throughout Scotland and other parts of the UK. One unique species is a bivalve called the ocean quahog, which grows to about six inches across over the course of 100 years. Fished for consumption in areas such as Norway and Iceland, quahogs take as long as 50 years to reach marketable size.
The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) and the official conservation agency, Scottish National Heritage, have pushed for additional protection, requesting an additional increase in MPAs as well as extra protections for certain marine animals and birds. These include Risso’s dolphins, minke whales, basking sharks, and threatened birds such as Arctic terns, kittiwakes, and Arctic skua. RSPB says that nine resident seabirds have shown sustained decline since 1986.
Stuart Housden, the director of RSPB Scotland, stated that the expansion is an “excellent first step,” but urges ministers to extend the protections to include other areas where seabirds feed. “Although we are now at last making progress in protecting key areas, our seabirds are still without the protection they need further out at sea where they feed,” he said.
Referring to some of the tensions concerning marine conservation with fisheries protection as well as the designation of large offshore areas to allow for renewable energy projects, Housden stated that the outer Firth of Forth MPA was of “enormous value” to kittiwakes and gannets, but was being earmarked for a large wind farm.
Calum Duncan, who is the marine task force convenor of the Scottish Environment’s umbrella group as well as a Marine Conservation Society manage, said that government agencies must properly enforce these spectacular underwater wonderlands. He also said that Scottish ministers were wise to listen to the strong consensus among marine scientists that ongoing threats caused by human activities needed to be managed better.
“By setting up these MPAs the government has wisely placed its confidence in that verdict,” he stated. “The work does not stop here – for the time being, these MPAs are just lines on maps, so careful management will be needed to ensure they actively help recover our sea life.”