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Item: 21 Page: 3 APPENDIX 1 Summary of Proposals within “Scottish Marine Regions: Defining their boundaries – a consultation” ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 1. Marine (Scotland) Act 2010 1.1 Measures contained in the Act The Marine (Scotland) Act 2010 provides a framework which will help balance competing demands on Scotland’s seas. The main measures include: 1.2 Marine planning: a new statutory marine planning system to manage the increasing demands on our seas in a sustainable manner, and provision of powers to create Scottish Marine Regions (SMRs) and to delegate marine planning functions in relation to regional marine plans; Marine licensing: introduction of a simpler licensing system; Marine conservation: improved marine nature and historic conservation; Seal conservation: improved protection for seals and a new comprehensive licence system; Enforcement: a range of enhanced powers of marine conservation and licensing enforcement; and Sea fisheries: provides for modifications to the Sea Fish (Conservation) Act 1967 National Marine Plan The powers within the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010 extend from the Mean High Water Spring (MHWS) tide to the seaward limits of Scottish territorial waters (12nm). Through the UK Marine and Coastal Access Act 2010 executive devolution of marine planning, conservation, marine licensing and enforcement from 12 – 200nm allows Scottish Ministers to manage Scotland’s seas from 0 – 200nm. It is the intention that the National Marine Plan will extend from 0 – 200nm. In addition to meeting national interests, the National Marine Plan will also deliver international responsibilities. A UK Marine Policy Statement created and adopted by the UK and devolved administrations will facilitate an integrated approach to marine planning across the UK. This will guide the national Marine Plan which will, in turn, guide the regional marine plans. The National Marine Plan will provide direction on what Scottish Ministers wish to achieve for the marine environment and in key areas such as renewable energy, fishing, aquaculture, conservation, recreation and tourism, ports and harbours and fishing etc. Nature conservation and historic designated sites will also be identified within the plan. Item: 21 Page: 4 APPENDIX 1 Summary of Proposals within “Scottish Marine Regions: Defining their boundaries – a consultation” ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 1.3 Regional Marine Planning The Marine (Scotland) Act 2010 provides powers for Ministers to create SMRs through secondary legislation and to delegate planning powers to the regional level. It is intended that regional planning functions will be delegated to Marine Planning Partnerships which will develop regional marine plans. Marine Planning Partnerships will comprise representatives from a wide range of stakeholder interests, including public authorities and representatives reflecting the commercial, recreational and conservation interests of that region. The Marine Planning Partnerships will be required to create regional marine plans which will be appropriate for that area, taking into account the National Marine Plan, and any specific directions from Ministers. Marine planning will be the core function of the Marine Planning Partnerships involving stakeholder engagement, collection of data, preparation of plans, consulting on draft plans, reporting and review. The regional plans are likely to be more spatially detailed than the National Marine Plan, reflecting the increased marine activity that often occurs in the coastal zones. Integrated Coastal Zone Management will also be a large part of the Planning Partnership role, recognising the potential interactions of coastal activities with both terrestrial and marine environments. 2. Existing Spatial Designations in the Marine Area around Scotland 2.1 Existing designations There are a range of existing EU/international and UK regionalisation schemes for the marine environment established for a variety of purposes: Fisheries management areas: Used by the EU to manage marine fish stocks. Based on marine areas which have been developed using groupings of rectangles established by the International Council for the Exploration of the Seas for recording fisheries statistics. OSPAR regions: The OSPAR Convention is the international mechanism to protect the marine environment of the North East Atlantic. Five regions have been identified, broadly on environmental grounds. The UK marine area is within two regions: Region II (Greater North Sea) and Region III (Celtic Waters). JNCC Marine Nature Conservation Review (MNCR): Initiated to provide a comprehensive baseline of information on marine habitats and species, to aid coastal zone and sea-use management and to contribute to the identification of areas of marine natural heritage importance throughout Great Britain. It has resulted in the development of a set of geographical divisions of the coastal areas that reflected the differences in environments and associated flora and fauna. Item: 21 Page: 5 APPENDIX 1 Summary of Proposals within “Scottish Marine Regions: Defining their boundaries – a consultation” ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 2.2 UK Marine Monitoring and Assessment strategy: One of the functions of this strategy is to prepare periodic reviews of the status of the marine environment in UK waters. Ways in which to regionalise the information were developed, however due to the range of data involved this regionalisation is complex and also gives considerable emphasis to offshore areas. Water Framework Directive – Area Advisory Groups: Created in response to the EU Water Framework Directive these have been drawn up primarily on the basis of river catchments, however the Water Framework Directive extends 3nm out to sea therefore quite a significant portion of coastal and marine areas are included within the River Basin Management Plans. Inshore Fisheries Groups: Non-statutory industry led groups whose principal purpose is to develop management plans for the inshore fisheries in their area. The original IFG areas were selected using natural geographical demarcations based primarily on habitat distribution. Local Coastal Partnerships and Regional Policy Areas: The Local Coastal Partnerships grew out of an SNH initiative “Focus on the Firths” which resulted in the creation of 5 LCPs. Two further LCPs have subsequently been formed so that much of the Scottish coastline is covered by LCPs. The Scottish Coastal Forum consider that the Scottish coast should be divided into 11 Regional Policy Areas, which would be based on the existing LCPs but would require the creation of three new areas to cover Orkney, Shetland and the north and west Highlands. Seaward Limits of Scottish Marine Regions The Marine (Scotland) Act 2010 provides that the Mean High Water Spring (MHWS) tide mark forms the landward limit of any marine plan. In contrast there are a number of considerations around how far out into the sea from MHWS is appropriate for a regional plan. The usual basis for any seaward measurement is the national baseline (this is line from which the seaward limits of a State's territorial sea and certain other maritime zones of jurisdiction are measured. Normally, a sea baseline follows the low water line of a coastal State, however when the coastline is deeply indented, has fringing islands or is highly unstable, straight baselines may be used.). This baseline is different to MHWS although the practical difference between the two is limited in the east and north coasts and in the Northern Isles. On the west coast the difference between MHWS and baseline can be significant and would mean that using baseline would result in west coast regions planning for very large areas of sea. The longer term vision is that marine regions will plan out to baseline plus 3 or 6nm although it is questionable whether this is sensible for the first regional plan. Item: 21 Page: 6 APPENDIX 1 Summary of Proposals within “Scottish Marine Regions: Defining their boundaries – a consultation” ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ In the short term an approach based on MHWS may be appropriate for regions on the west coast that may incorporate large areas of internal waters. As most marine activities occur within 3nm of the coast this is a crucial area for planning. At the minimum the seaward limit should be 3nm from MHWS although it could be 6nm. 2.3 Strategic Sea Areas Using MHWS plus 3 or 6nm, as set out above, may not deliver integrated management of important water bodies such as the Pentland Firth, the Minches and the mouth of the Clyde. While regional marine planning is evolving it is proposed that integrated management of these key marine areas is achieved by designating them as Strategic Sea Areas. During the initial development of regional marine planning the National Marine Plan will provide the basis of integrated management of these areas. Over time, as the west coast regions become more familiar with marine planning and grow out to baseline plus 3nm or 6nm, this will be resolved. 3. Possible Approaches to Identifying Scottish Marine Regions 3.1 Physical/ecosystem characteristics A wide range of principles have been used in developing different regionalisation structures for marine waters around Scotland. In general the underlying purpose for the regionalisation has strongly influenced the outcome. From a purely environmental point of view there is considerable attraction in an ecosystem approach that uses aspects of the physical characteristics of the coastal waters as a base. However, a pure ecosystem approach is not practical as a tool to define meaningful regions around the Scottish coast. Ecosystems can be defined on a very wide range of geographical scales depending on the organisms or ecosystem functions that are of primary interest. Any system developing SMRs for planning purposes will have a geographic scale of hundreds of kilometres and will necessarily have to take account of sets of ecosystems which lie wholly within the region boundary, which overlap the regional boundary, and those which operate on much larger scales and need coordination at national or international scale. One approach that might deliver some of the benefits of the ecosystem approach is to focus on physical characteristics. Using this approach regions would be defined by large scale geographical features such as island groups and large Firths. While this approach is not the same as the ecosystem approach it is likely that the broad geographical features of an inshore area will generate a reasonably coherent set of ecosystems around that geographical feature. Item: 21 Page: 7 APPENDIX 1 Summary of Proposals within “Scottish Marine Regions: Defining their boundaries – a consultation” ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Using this approach, marine regions based around island groupings, such as Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles and the major firths (the Solway, Forth, Clyde, and Moray) would be straightforward to define using characteristics such as headland to headland or river to river. However such an approach would leave areas outwith the major physical features undifferentiated and treated as a single region e.g. the west coast from Mull of Kintyre to Cape Wrath, the east coast from above the Forth to Rattray Head, and the north coast. While the north coast might operate as a single region, the east and west coasts may seem rather large to operate as regions in their own right. 3.2 Existing Administrative Models There are four main coastal management units around the Scottish coast: Area Advisory Groups established for the purposes of the Water Framework Directive ; these have been drawn up primarily on the basis of river catchments; Inshore Fisheries Groups for the management of inshore fisheries: these areas were selected using natural geographical demarcations based primarily on habitat distribution; Local Authorities which act as planning authorities on land, and also for aquaculture developments in coastal waters; Local Coastal Partnerships - created to deliver Integrated Coastal Zone Management initiatives by engaging with their membership of diverse marine and community interests. They have clear-cut boundaries along the coast although their landward limits are flexible and may depend on the nature of the coastal management issue under consideration. Choosing any one existing administrative solution creates an immediate mismatch with other administrative boundaries. 4. Options for Defining the Boundaries of Scottish Marine Regions 4.1 Option 1 – Physical Characteristics This option would result in 10 marine regions. Of these, the coastline of Aberdeenshire would be covered by the Moray Firth region and the East Coast region, which would run from Rattray Head to Fife Ness. Item: 21 Page: 8 APPENDIX 1 Summary of Proposals within “Scottish Marine Regions: Defining their boundaries – a consultation” ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Advantages Islands and firths are distinctive and readily identified by stakeholders; It would ensure one marine plan for the whole of that firth; The areas tend to match in broad terms the existing administrative boundaries of the Inshore Fisheries Groups All of the major Firths already have coastal partnerships. Disadvantages 4.2 Some water bodies are too big to have an effective community element. It may well be that the east and west coast regions are too big to be effective regions. Option 2 - Existing Administrative Boundaries Under this option the marine regions would coincide with either the boundaries of the Inshore Fisheries Groups (IFGs) or the Area Advisory groups (AAGs). If the IFG boundaries were used there would be 12 marine regions, although this may change as the IFGs are currently subject to review. Using the AAG boundaries would result in 10 marine regions. The use of IFG boundaries would result in Aberdeenshire being covered by 2 marine regions: the Moray Firth and an east coast region from Rattray Head to a point south of the existing local authority boundary with Angus. Using AAG boundaries to define marine regions would result in the majority of Aberdeenshire being included in a marine region extending from the River Spey to the Bervie Water. The part of Aberdeenshire south of Bervie would be included within a Tayside marine region. Advantages Both groups have stakeholders actively involved in planning for inshore fisheries or for area management plans and are thus experienced in working together, albeit not in marine planning; Using an existing set of administrative boundaries will avoid creating another new set of boundaries. Disadvantages The IFGs and AAGs do not have identical boundaries and extend different distances out to sea. Choosing one set of boundaries over another creates an immediate mismatch with the other; Stakeholders from both groups should be represented in the Marine Planning Partnerships but neither group provides a ready made and comprehensive solution to the question of appropriate representation for marine planning. Item: 21 Page: 9 APPENDIX 1 Summary of Proposals within “Scottish Marine Regions: Defining their boundaries – a consultation” ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 4.3 Option 3 – Physical Characteristics with the west coast split into 2 regions and the east coast boundaries varied. This option is similar to Option 1 but seeks to address one of the possible weaknesses of option 1: the very large regions on the east and west coasts. 11 marine regions would be created using IFG, AAG or Local Authority boundaries, depending on which was considered most appropriate. The east coast would be split into 3 regions covering the Moray Firth, the eastern seaboard from Rattray Head to a point in Angus, and the south east of Scotland from Angus to Berwickshire incorporating both the Firths of Tay and Forth. Advantages / Disadvantages The advantages of this option are considered to be the same as option 1, but designed to address the major disadvantage i.e. the large regions on the east and west coast.