Coastal Monitoring Site: Scalloway
Scalloway in the Shetland Isles has been part of this monitoring programme since 2002, although temperature monitoring began prior to this in 1999 and toxic phytoplankton monitoring in 2000. Samples are collected by the North Atlantic
Fisheries College (http://www.nafc.ac.uk) and their input into the success of this programme is gratefully acknowledged.
The Shetland Isles lie over 100 miles north of the UK mainland. Atlantic water from west of the UK enters the North Sea between the Orkney and Shetland Islands and around north east of Shetland through the Norwegian trench. Scalloway is a harbour on the south west coast of the Shetland mainland, sheltered from the North Atlantic by a number of small islands.
At the start of the measurement period, a minilogger was first deployed in Clift Sound at position, 60° 07.04’ N, 001° 16.87’ W, near Scalloway in December 1999. In December 2001 the recorder was moved to a different site in Scalloway which was easier to service. The minilogger recorder is suspended at 2 m below the sea surface under a floating pontoon at Scalloway boat club so this is never at risk of exposure to the air. The exact position of the site has changed slightly over the
years due to a collapse of the original boat club pontoon, which also resulted in a gap in the data. The water samples are taken from the same boat club pontoon, which is at a location with less than 10 m water depth and is a very sheltered location on a sheltered part of the coastline.