Aquaculture - Guidance on the location of marine fish farms - April 2024

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"