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.