Polygon

The Petroleum Act 1987 is the UK law which governs offshore safety zones. A surface safety zone is an area extending 500m from any part of an offshore oil and gas installation and is established automatically around all installations which project above the sea at any state of the tide. Subsea installations may also have safety zones, created by statutory instrument (S.I.) to protect them. These safety zones are 500m radius from a central point. Vessels of all nations are required by law to respect safety zones. It is an offence (under section 23 of the Petroleum Act 1987) to enter a safety zone except under special circumstances.

Measuring fishing effort is important for assessing the environmental sustainability of fish stocks and the socioeconomic efficiency of fishing activity. Fishing effort describes the amount of fishing gear used on a fishing ground over a given unit of time. Effort in this case is defined as number of creels hauled per day per 4 km2. This survey interviewed 198 creel vessel skippers from four regions, two on the west and two on the east coast of Scotland. This analysis has been produced from these SAMPLED vessels only. This IS NOT a census and IS NOT a map of all creeling effort in these waters or in the survey areas. This is an indication of potential fishing effort only and if creeling is not quantified in an area in this map, that DOES NOT mean creeling is not taking place. Equally quantified effort could be higher given some creeling vessels were not surveyed. Fishing effort outside of the surveyed area was not measured.

Measuring fishing effort is important for assessing the environmental sustainability of fish stocks and the socioeconomic efficiency of fishing activity. Fishing effort describes the amount of fishing gear used on a fishing ground over a given unit of time. Effort in this case is defined as number of creels hauled per day per 4 km2. This survey interviewed 198 creel vessel skippers from four regions, two on the west and two on the east coast of Scotland. This analysis has been produced from these SAMPLED vessels only. This IS NOT a census and IS NOT a map of all creeling effort in these waters or in the survey areas. This is an indication of potential fishing effort only and if creeling is not quantified in an area in this map, that DOES NOT mean creeling is not taking place. Equally quantified effort could be higher given some creeling vessels were not surveyed. Fishing effort outside of the surveyed area was not measured.

‘Lease/Lease Agreement’ is a legal agreement from Crown Estate Scotland whereby an area of foreshore or seabed is occupied by a third party (a 'tenant') for an agreed purpose, such as renewable energy, and which gives consent for the tenant to develop on the lease site(s), if other required permissions are gained.

This layer shows areas where there is a Crown Estate Scotland Lease/Lease Agreement in place for renewable wave energy sites.