Open Government Licence (OGL)

The layers provide information on the intensity of mobile fishing associated with Oil and Gas pipelines and cables. Each layer was created by calculating the total number of fishing tracks in 1 km by 1 km squares along the length of each pipeline for four gear categories (see Rouse et al 2017). Fishing tracks were recreated for UK vessels greater than 15 m in length between 2007-2015 operating mobile demersal gear (otter trawls, pair trawls, beam trawlers and dredges) using vessel position data extracted from the Vessel Monitoring System.
The layers can be used to aid the pipeline decommissioning process, including assessing the potential impacts and risks of different decommissioning options to commercial fisheries and informing the frequency of post-decommissioning monitoring according to level of fisheries interaction. The layers can also inform risk modelling for operational pipelines.

This layer depicts fishing intensity by all gears and uses the time-aware functionality to filter by year.

The data must be attributed with the statement "© Crown Copyright, All rights reserved. (Scottish Government). Contains data © CDA Ltd".

 

A Ramsar site is the land listed as a Wetland of International Importance under the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance Especially as Waterfowl Habitat (the Ramsar Convention) 1973. The Scottish Government has designated 51 RAMSAR sites in Scotland, covering 326,719 hectares. This layer displays the Ramsar sites across Scotland.

Data directly available from:

• https://jncc.gov.uk/our-work/uk-protected-area-datasets-for-download/ 
• https://sitelink.nature.scot/home

Dataset shows aquaculture-related CAR Licences for Scotland. The Water Environment (Controlled Activities) (Scotland) Regulations 2011 – more commonly known as the Controlled Activity Regulations (CAR) – and their further amendments apply regulatory controls over activities which may affect Scotland’s water environment. This legislation arose from the European Community (EC)’s Water Framework Directive (WFD) becoming law in Scotland as the Water Environment and Water Services (Scotland) Act 2003 (WEWS Act). The regulations cover rivers, lochs, transitional waters (estuaries), coastal waters groundwater, and groundwater dependant wetlands.

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 of QUEEN SCALLOPS 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.