Literature coverage regarding MPAs in Scotland

Most of the news articles that I have used in my blogs so far have not been scientific research articles. I have mostly used internet based searches, such as Google, and have been able to gather a variety of online sources, including maps and news articles. The advantage of these sources is that they have all been open access so any member of the public can utilise them if need be. However, with this post I would like to address the coverage of actual scientific literature surrounding MPAs in Scotland.

To do this I used Google Scholar, an online search engine that is widely used when searching for any sort of peer-reviewed article, it isn't strictly scientific based. I simply input the keywords "Scotland" and "marine protected areas" into the browser and searched for articles relating to this criteria. All in all, Google Scholar returned just over 76,600 results over an unrestricted time frame. To get an insight into recent publications relating to Scottish MPAs, I also narrowed the search down to articles released since 2012, which returned just over 16,200 results.

It may therefore seem that Scottish MPAs have seen rather a lot of coverage in scientific literature. This however will not be completely the case. By simply observing some of the results, I am able to notice that not all of the articles are truly only related to Scottish MPAs. Some articles may be related to MPAs in the rest of the UK, which have included a Scottish example within their study. Google Scholar still recognises this as a result relating to Scottish MPAs rather than as an example from a wider study. This is also the case for studies related to organisms that are found within Scottish MPAs. The study may not particularly relate to the MPA, but it has been mentioned in the article so has returned a result.

Google Scholar also has the annoying tendency to give results that relate to online books or even just lists a citation without actually providing a copy of the original article. I have encountered this all the way through my university degree, both undergraduate and postgraduate, and it can be highly inconvenient.

Also, the vast majority of articles that tend to be on Google Scholar have the problem of being from a paid journal. There is the occasional article from an open access journal, such as PLOS Biology, but most tend to be from paid journals. This relates well to the problem I raised in my first blog post regarding open access data in science and the lack of it there is. The fact that there are many quality articles that can not be accessed by the public unless they are willing to pay for a subscription fee is rather ridiculous.

MPAs and the fishing industry

"A Marine Protected Area network in Scotland’s Seas is designed to conserve a selection of marine biodiversity (species and habitats) and geodiversity (the variety of landforms and natural processes that underpin the marine landscapes), offering long-term support for the services our seas provide to society."

The quote above is taken from the Scottish Government's website and perfectly defines the aims of what MPAs are set up to protect. However, preserving marine species requires quotas to be placed on economically important species to the fishing industry. Some of Scotland's more heavily fished species include: cod; whiting; haddock and a variety of shellfish, including shrimp.

By placing quotas on the amount of fish that can be caught by fisherman however, you are also impacting the industry. The implementation of the new Scottish MPA network in 2014, that I outlined in an earlier blog post, has been met with general hostility from the fishing industry in Scotland. This is due to the impact that the quotas may have on the viability of the west of Scotland fishing fleet.

The Scottish Fisherman's Federation (SFF) released an article on their website indicating their frustration towards the Scottish Government relating to the West Scotland MPA network, in particular the South Arran MPA. The local community feels that the Scottish Government have not taken into account their views and the impact on the local economy. In response, the SFF called on MSPs to block a vote on the implementation of new guidelines for the South Arran MPA, which would have put greater restrictions on their fishing quotas. 

The following is a quote from another article on the SFF website that highlights the plight of local fishermen and how they feel towards the Scottish MPA network:

“We appreciate that the marine area around Scotland is a common resource with many stakeholders, each having their own right to comment and input. However there is a concern over the level of exclusion felt amongst many fishing communities and the industry. Fishermen are first-hand stakeholders and sustainable users and guardians of the marine environment. Projects like the recently celebratedFishing for Litter scheme and the continuing efforts in conjunction with Marine Scotland to improve gear selectivity go some way to demonstrating our industry’s progressive commitment."

It must be said, there appears to be a lack of cooperation from the Scottish Government in relation to this matter as there appears to be no direct response to the fears of these fishing communities. The only response I was able to surface from the internet was from the Fisheries Secretary at Holyrood, Richard Lochhead, who said in a recent EU meeting: “Clearly, there is an ongoing debate over the economic impact. I said I would listen to the evidence and I have done that.” Hardly a straightforward answer.

Therefore, it remains to be seen what the true impact of the implementation of the new MPA network will truly have on the fishermen in Scottish waters. The data for this article is all freely available on the internet and was generally easy to find via a simple Google search. However, there is a clear lack of data on the subject apart from a handful of statements from either side of the argument. There appears to be very little in the way of neutral journalism from established news sources surrounding the subject, which was highly frustrating.

Plans for a national marine park in Scottish waters

The idea for a marine national park of the west coast of Scotland was initially proposed under the National Parks Scotland Act 2000 to protect a large area of marine habitats, flora and fauna. A WDCS report by Clark et al (2010) on critical cetacean habitat identified key areas for the protection of cetaceans in Western Scotland. The WDCS is calling for the construction of a large MPA network called the Hebrides Marine Reserve and Cetacean Critical Habitat Network (HMRCCHN). The area proposed is shown in the Google Earth image below:

This image was generated from a .kmz file that was downloaded from this link: http://us.whales.org/wdc-in-action/12-marine-protected-areas-google-earth-tour. This image is very easy to generate granted the user has Google Earth installed on their computer.

The following information is extracted from a book available online. The book wasa very easy to source and contains proposals for numerous other MPAs around the coast of Britain. The area takes into account the areas of West Scotland, the Minches, the Sound of Barra and the Sea of the Hebrides and covers an area of around 24,789 km². It is proposed as having areas of critical habitat for bottlenose dolphins, Risso's dolphins and harbour porpoise. 

However, another aspect of the reserve is provide education and promote effective marine spatial planning with better management of marine users, including fisheries and naval exercises. The proposed reserve also hopes to redirect oil tankers away from inshore routes, which in turn would improve the value of tourism and products from fishing in the area, as it would carry a special marine reserve 'brand'.

Therefore, implementing this vast MPA network would bring many benefits to the conservation of cetaceans in the waters of Western Scotland. However, it may also have negative impacts on other industries, which I will look at in a later blog post.

How effective are MPAs in the conservation of cetaceans?

The previous posts I created on this blog introduced the MPA network that Scotland currently has and displayed a couple of online interactive maps that I came across. I would now like to investigate how effective the Scottish MPA network is in preserving marine life and how animals can impact future expansion and development of the current MPA network. 

Due to the vast number of animal species that live in Scottish waters, I have decided to narrow my focus down a bit whilst investigating these questions. I will focus on a group of the marine mammals known as the Cetacea, which consists of the whales, dolphins and porpoises. I have chosen this group of animals to study as they are very iconic and highly important in a number of different niches in the marine food chain of Scottish waters. Scotland is home to many cetaceans including bottlenose dolphins, minke whales and even sightings of humpback whales and large pods of orca.

Now, you would think that such an important group of animals would therefore be considered in any planning of MPAs in Scotland. However, this was not been the case up until 2012, which spurred this creation of this rather quirky YouTube video by the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS):

In 2013, following a long campaign by the WDCS and petition that gathered over 36,000 signatures, the Scottish government finally began to plan the implemetation MPAs that took bottlenose dolphins into account. Some more details can be found via this link: http://uk.whales.org/blog/2013/07/what-future-for-scotlands-whales-and-dolphins.

As of September 2015, the WDCS is continuing to campaign to the Scottish government to start implementing MPAs surrounding other cetaceans, including the Risso's dolphin and harbour porpoise. More details can be found here: http://uk.whales.org/blog/2015/09/we-got-lucky-will-rissos-and-porpoises-get-lucky-too.

Mapping the MPAs of Scotland

In my last blog I highlighted an online interactive map available through the JNCC website in which people could easily visualise the MPAs within Scottish waters. I did find some little issues with the map that annoyed me slightly that were highlighted in the last blog. However, a very helpful comment left on that blog by one of my former undergraduate peers (thanks, Charlotte) drew my attention to the Marine Scotland website.

This map is available on the Marine Scotland website using the following link: https://marinescotland.atkinsgeospatial.com/nmpi/. It addresses the click and drag across the map problem I found was a niggle with the JNCC map. The map has all the same layering features as the JNCC map but, personally, I feel like this map has a much more appealing user interface, as it utilises OpenStreetMap. 

The map is free to access for any member of the public and it is relatively simple to to build all sorts of combinations of layers on the map. The useful aspect of this map is that it also allows you to download layers of the map as shape files. You can then use the shape files on your own personal mapping application, such as ArcGIS. All of these datasets are covered by Crown Copyright so be careful if you plan on utilising them.

This map was set up as part of the National Marine Plan Interactive (NMPi) scheme by the Scottish Government. New data sets are constantly added to further improve the functionality of the map. You can also register an account and contribute your own data if you want to. 

Alternatively, shape files can also be downloaded from the Natural Spaces section of the Scottish Natural Heritage website using the following link: https://gateway.snh.gov.uk/natural-spaces/index.jsp. However, you must have a registered account to download any data from this site but I believe it is free. You can download may different types of GIS files from this link and can also link your GIS desktop application to the online datasets using an OpenGIS web interface I was delighted to read whilst on the SNH website that they have constructed an Open Data Publication Plan to allow free access to data on their website.

Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in Scottish waters

The oceans surrounding Scotland are some of the most biologically diverse in the world in relation to habitat and species richness. To preserve this natural diversity, Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) have been set up around the coast of Scotland. The IUCN defines an MPA as:

"Any area of the intertidal or subtidal terrain, together with its overlying water and associated flora, fauna, historical and cultural features, which has been reserved by law or other effective means to protect part or all of the enclosed environment."

MPAs are a valuable tool in marine conservation due to the restrictions it places on human activity, with the aim of protecting the natural and cultural resources of the designated site. MPAs do permit sustainable use of resources within their boundaries by a variety of industries, as long as the area is kept healthy and contributes to society for generations to come.

There are currently 30 MPAs within Scottish waters as part of the Nature Conservation MPA network, a full list of the sites can be found by clicking here. 17 of these sites have been designated under the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010 in Scottish territorial waters, whilst a further 13 MPAs under the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009 that have been recommended by Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) and the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC).

Where are the MPAs situated in Scotland? The map below shows us the MPAs highlighted with a light blue boundary. The outer purple boundary shown is the boundaries of the ocean that are considered to be Scottish waters.

Access to this tool can easily be found at: http://jncc.defra.gov.uk/page-5201. The map on the website is highly functional. It doesn't just show the boundaries for MPAs in Scotland, but for the whole of the UK as well. You can also add various layers to the map, including highlighting habitats that are registered as Annex I under the European Commissions' Habitat Directive.

It is highly important to have such a network of MPAs in Scotland designed to conserve a vast selection of marine biodiversity and geodiversity (the variety of natural landforms and natural processes that underpin the marine landscapes). The Nature Conservation MPAs have been identified for numerous features that Marine Scotland believes require more protection than that offered by existing protected areas.

Data collection and analysis for the blog

Data for this blog was very simple to find through simple Google searches including the key terms "Marine Protected Areas" and "Scotland". This is the case because this blog was only regarding background information on MPAs, which is readily available on the internet. The interactive map on the JNCC website for the MPA network I found was rather difficult to work in places, it could be made easier to navigate across the map through a click and drag motion. However, the advantage it offers of adding and removing the layers from the map to highlight certain MPAs made it useful for identifying the MPAs in Scottish waters. I looked for a .kmz file that I could use to map Scottish MPAs on Google Earth but again this was sadly lacking. All in all, the data for this blog was very easy to source and is highly interactive.

Can science open up?

A big flaw in scientific research is a lack of open access to data, including both research papers and general scientific practice. With many of the top research journals requiring you to pay hundreds, or sometimes even thousands, of pounds annually in subscription fees, a lot of people often feel disengaged with scientific research in the UK. I am lucky enough to have free access to such journals due to my student status at the University of Glasgow, with the university covering my subscription fees.

However, there is a big push in science to make all raw data and scientific research in peer-reviewed journals open and free to access by any member of the public. But what is open access? An open access journal, according to Wikipedia, are scholarly journals that are available online to the reader "without financial, legal, or technical barriers other than those inseparable from gaining access to the internet itself". Essentially, this means that you should not have to pay any subscription fee to the journal to access the data. An article published in Nature by Richard van Noorden highlights the true cost of publishing data in science. 

Open access journals also aim to remove many of the copyright and licensing restrictions surrounding publication. Whilst these journals are free to access for the public, costs surrounding publication and production are still enforced. Open access journals tend to either be funded by government institutions. academic institutions or paid for by the author of the paper.

There is a big push currently in scientific research to increase the amount of open access content that is available. As of February 2016, there are over 11,000 open access journals registered on the Directory of Open Access Journals website. This is a large increase from the 4,800 open access journals that were registered in 2009. 

One of largest, and most well known, open access scientific journals is PLOS Biology, which was launched in 2003. It is a well respected, peer-reviewed journal that I personally have cited many times whilst writing reports at university. There are a variety of other websites, such as the Dryad Data Repository that allow authors of scientific papers to publish the data sets they used online. However, despite this progress, it was reported in a study conducted in 2013 that only 12% of journals are open access. A lot therefore is still required to push the open access movement in science forward.

This leads me on to what I have set this blog up to address. What you see on this blog will form my assessment for a course I am doing in Biodiversity Informatics as part my masters degree at the University of Glasgow. My topic will be analysing how easy it is to find and access data surrounding Marine Protected Areas in Scotland. These are areas set up to preserve the natural environment and animal species of the ocean surrounding our beautiful coast. 

It is with the thought of being open about my own project that I will be sharing this blog on social media with my friends and family. I hope you enjoy the journey!