Fishing pressures can be managed using spatial measures such as prohibiting or restricting certain types of fishing, target species, or vessel capacity. This dataset depicts restrictions on fishing of SANDEELS defined by EU, UK and Scottish legislation since 1986. Polygons were simplified for web use and are for illustrative purposes only. Guidance should be sought from Fishery Offices on interpreting legislation.
Marine planning zones set out the boundaries for local planning authorities responsibilities for planning controls of marine fish and shellfish farms in Scottish waters.
The Town and Country Planning (Marine Fish Farming) (Scotland) Order 2007 as amended by The Town and Country Planning (Marine Fish Farming) (Scotland) Amendment Order 2025 describes marine planning zone boundaries for each designated planning authority.
Please note that for simplicity, this illustrative layer might contain planar lines (straight lines derived on the British National Grid Co-ordinate Reference System) in place of loxodromic lines (lines of constant bearing).
Management Areas were established in the Final Report of the Joint Government/Industry Working Group on Infectious Salmon Anaemia in January 2000, based on tidal excursions around active farms. Farms with overlapping tidal excursions will usually be within the same management area.
Recommendations include that all sites within the same management area follow an acceptable stocking strategy (see figure 10.1 in Code of Practice) such that fallowing within a management area is synchronised. Fish farmers are encouraged to look carefully at the areas before stocking sites. New sites that would have no effect on management areas or are in management areas of their own pose less of a risk to the spread of disease than those which bridge management areas.
Stocking a previously unused site that may bridge management areas should be avoided. Fish Farmers should consider not restocking a site if it would create a "fire break" and split one of the larger management areas into two smaller areas.
The Management Area Maps will be updated when a change in site use leads to a significant change a management area but if you require a map showing the effect of stocking or inactivating a specific site please contact the Duty Inspector at the Fish Health Inspectorate (FHI)
Category 1, 2 and 3 areas are designated on the basis of Marine Scotland predictive models to estimate environmental sensitivity of sea lochs. The maps describe the Category 1, 2 and 3 areas for the Scottish Government Locational Guidelines, designated on the basis of Marine Scotland Science predictive modelling to estimate nutrient enhancement and benthic impact in sea lochs or similar water bodies supporting aquaculture. The sum of these indices was used for the categorisation of areas as indicated: Combined 'nutrient enhancement' and 'benthic impact' indices 7 - 10 (Category 1), 5 - 6 (Category 2), 0 - 4 (Category 3). For a detailed explanation of how these categorisations were derived, refer to the Scottish Fisheries Research (now Marine Scotland Science) Report "Scottish Executive locational guidelines for fish farming: predicted levels of nutrient enhancement and benthic impact"
