A Scottish seascape with pink and grey clouds in the sky and reflected in the water. The picture is taken from shore with land mass across the water. It looks to be dawn or dusk, with the clous hinting at either a beautiful or stormy day.

Campaign win: Protections for Scotland’s offshore MPAs

16 Oct 2025

1 minute read

This month, new management measures come into place in Scotland, protecting almost 177,000 km2 of its vital Marine Protected Areas. We look back at the almost 20 years it took us to get here.

On 16th October, the Scottish government has announced new fisheries management measures which will protect over 176,900 km2 of Scotland’s 20 offshore Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), including the largest in Europe, from bottom-towed fishing gear.

Our Head of Policy and Advocacy, Calum Duncan, presented evidence to Scottish Parliament Rural Affairs and Island Committee earlier this month to help seal the deal on this monumental win for Scottish seas. This follows almost two decades of concerted advocacy, which we have been at the heart of every step of the way.

Calum Duncan said: “Although the final proposals have whole-site protections from bottom trawling for just five sites, rather than the 20 we wanted to see, there is still plenty to be supportive of. The entire Anton Dohrn seamount will now be protected from bottom-towed gear, another four sites will have whole-site protections, and more seabed is to be protected in Central Fladden and East of Gannet and Montrose Fields MPAs.”

93% of the combined site area will be protected from bottom-towed gear – although much of this is in the West of Scotland MPA where trawling was already prohibited deeper than 800m.

As Calum said to Committee, it is now crucial that Scotland’s Marine Monitoring Strategy is properly resourced so that the sites can be monitored to see how effective the measures are.

In line with the government’s Scottish Biodiversity Action Plan, adaptive management will be essential, meaning that measures can be strengthened if sites are unable to meet their conservation objectives under zonal measures. We would like to see this happen if sites are found not to be meeting their conservation objectives.

Calum Duncan giving evidence at the Rural Affairs and Islands Committee

But with these measures coming into effect today, it is important to take the time to stop, reflect and welcome how far we’ve come in a long, but worthwhile process to protect our ocean and secure a better future for us all.