The Scottish Government is consulting on the creation of a Deep Sea Marine Reserve in the Rockall Trough off the West Coast of Scotland. If taken forward to designation, the site would be underpinned by the powers in the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009. This means in legal terms it would have the same status as the other existing Marine Protected Areas in offshore waters. The Rockall Trough, if designated would help meet our international commitments to protect the marine environment in the North-East Atlantic, as required under the OSPAR Convention.

Grey seals (Halichoerus grypus) are present around the coast of Scotland in internationally import numbers. They breed on wave-exposed rocky coasts, sometimes on sand or shingle beaches at the foot of cliffs, often on relatively remote islands, with large groups of pregnant females returning to traditional breeding sites in the autumn. This data shows the breeding colonies currently listed with the Sea Mammal Research Unit (SMRU).

Point data identifying the location of finfish or shellfish farms around Scotland from the Fish Health Inspectorate Aquadat database. This includes fishery sites which are ponds or other installation where farmed fish are stocked for recreational fishing (either private or commercial). The data includes the three categories: Active: is the status of a site that is stocked or fallow with the intention of restocking in the foreseeable future. Inactive: is the status of a site that is unlikely to be stocked in the foreseeable future. Deregistered: is the status applied to a site that is no longer used for the purpose of fish or shellfish production; the lease has been surrendered.

Seal haul-out sites are designated under section 117 of Marine (Scotland) Act 2010. Harassing a seal (intentionally or recklessly) at a haul-out site is an offence. “Haul-out site” means any place which the Scottish Ministers, after consulting the Natural Environment Research Council, by order designate as such for the purposes of this section.

Salmon Rivers in Scotland (2008) digital data produced by Scottish Government Marine Scotland Science with information from Fisheries Trusts and other sources.

Salmon Fishery Statistical Region boundaries, used by Scottish Government Marine Scotland for reporting annual statistics obtained from salmon catch returns made by the owners/occupiers/agents of salmon fisheries.(Salmon Fishery Statistical Districts amalgamated into Regions)

Regional Inshore Fisheries Groups (RIFGs) are bodies that aim to improve the management of Scotland's inshore fisheries (out to six nautical miles) and to give commercial inshore fishermen a strong voice in wider marine management developments. Originally six pilot IFGs were established in 2009 (covering the Outer Hebrides, the Clyde, the south east of Scotland, the north west, small isles and Mull, and Moray Firth) and each developed an inshore fisheries management plan for its area. This was followed in 2013 by six Inshore Fisheries Groups (IFGs) covering all of the Scottish coast (except Shetland which has its own management arrangements). The West Coast and North & East Coast RIFGs were established in April 2016 and replace the four IFGs that formerly covered the Scottish mainland coast. This layer shows the RIFG network, which includes the West Coast, North & East Coast and Outer Hebrides RIFGs, along with the Orkney Management Group and Shetland Shellfish Management Organisation.

Fisheries which returned coastal fixed engine or net and coble catches of salmon or sea trout to Marine Scotland Science from 2011 onwards. Fishery locations are repeated for each year that the fishery was active, i.e. reported catch data. More information on the Scottish Government salmon and sea trout fishery statistics is provided at http://www.gov.scot/Topics/marine/Publications/stats/SalmonSeaTroutCatches

The annual Scottish Sea Fisheries Statistics report is aggregated into districts, which reflect the area of responsibility of the local fishery office. This dataset shows the approximate extent of each district using the 1:50,000 scale OS Meridian 2 mean high water spring coastline. The districts are for illustrative purposes only.\\n\\nThe districts were updated in the 2013 report to reflect changes in responsibility of the Ullapool fishery office and renamed the Pittenweem district as Anstruther.

These layers are the outputs of research which developed a national river temperature model for Scotland capable of predicting both daily maximum river temperature and sensitivity to climate change. The layers show the following: summer_max_tw_2015_16 – Predictions of maximum daily river temperatures for the hottest day between July 2015 and June 2016. summer_max_tw_2003 – Predictions of maximum daily river temperatures for the hottest year in the last 20 years (2003). summer_climate_change_sensitivity – Predictions of the change in river temperature that would result from a 1°C increase in air temperature. A fourth layer has been developed to combine the outputs from “summer_max_tw_2003” and “summer_climate_change_sensitivity” into a single layer that can be used to prioritise management where the relative importance of maximum temperature and temperature change are considered to be equal. This was achieved by (1) dividing the predictions of ‘summer_max_tw_2003’ and ‘summer_climate_change_sensitivity’ into 5 equal categories between the minimum and maximum observed values (2) assigning these categories a value ranging from 1 (the hottest / most sensitive rivers) to 5 (the coolest / least sensitive rivers) (3) sum the rankings (-1) to produce an overall priority ranking (1:9) where rivers ranked as 1 are the highest priority for management (i.e. high river temperature and high climate sensitivity) and 9 the lowest. Management_Priority_Layer – Management priority on a scale of 1:9 where 1 is the highest priority (i.e. high river temperature and high climate sensitivity) and 9 the lowest