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Nature Conservation Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are designated under the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010 or the UK Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009. They have to be managed in a way that furthers the conservation objectives. The EU Habitats Directive requires Special Areas of Conservation (and Special Protection Areas) to be managed in a way that prevents deterioration of the qualifying features. This dataset contains boundaries and management measures for inshore MPAs and Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) taking effect from March 2016. The dataset contains measures which are subject to Marine Conservation Orders (MCOs), under the Inshore Fishing (Scotland) Act 1984, or EU regulations (as amended by UK law)

The limit of Scotland, as defined in 126(1) of the Scotland Act 1998, is the Territorial Sea (12 mile limit). The Scottish Adjacent Waters Boundaries Order 1999 details the co-ordinates of the boundaries on the east coast (between Scotland and England near Berwick) and the west coast (between Scotland and England in the Solway firth and Scotland and Northern Ireland in the North Channel.

The Territorial Sea (Baselines) Order 2014 establishes the baselines from which the breadth of the territorial sea adjacent to the United Kingdom, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man is measured in accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. The baseline is generally the low-water line around the coast, including the coast of all islands.

This layer is extracted from the UKHO Law of the Sea department data.

This layer shows the limits of the territorial sea of the United Kingdom which are to be treated as adjacent to Northern Ireland.

This version is from UKHO Law of the Sea department data, available via ADMIRALTY Marine Data Portal