Fisheries Management Measures within Scottish Offshore Marine Protected Areas (MPAs)

Overview

Scottish Ministers have committed to delivering fisheries management measures for existing Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) where these are not already in place. This is in line with the Scottish Government's vision for the marine environment, for clean, healthy, safe, productive and diverse seas; managed to meet the long term needs of nature and people. 

This consultation is seeking views and comments on fisheries management options for 20 protected areas in the offshore marine region.

Read the consultation paper.

Why your views matter

The Scottish Government is committed to realising our vision of the marine environment being clean, healthy, safe, productive, diverse and managed to meet the long term needs of nature and people. Your responses will help to shape and inform how we do this.

Respondents should take into consideration the information provided within this document alongside any other knowledge or personal experiences that could be relevant. All opinions are welcome.

You are invited to answer all the questions. However, if you are unable to answer any question then please feel free to skip and move on to the next most relevant question.

The questions are asked in relation to each of the 20 sites and two options for fisheries management measures. In addition, there are questions asked in relation to specific documents:

• Sustainability Appraisal (SA);
• Strategic Environmental Report (SEA);
• Socio-Economic Impact Assessment (SEIA);
• Draft Fisheries Assessments;
• partial Business Regulatory Impact Assessment (BRIA) and
• partial Island Communities Impact Assessment (ICIA).

We recommend reading the full suite of documents before starting to submit your responses. The links for the documents can be found in the related section below.

What happens next

Following the closing date, all responses will be analysed and considered along with any other available evidence to help us. Responses will be published where we have been given permission to do so. An analysis report will also be made available.