Marine Scotland


Marine Scotland is a civil service directorate within the Scottish Government, responsible for leading the protection of Scotland’s coastal waters and seas, to both build sustainable economic growth from Scotland’s marine assets, and to safeguard its valuable marine ecosystems. Marine Scotland is responsible for the Marine Act and devolved areas such as fishing.

History

Marine Scotland was established on 1 April 2009, merging two executive agencies and the Scottish Government marine and fishery policy divisions.

Role, staffing and budget

Marine Scotland has responsibility for marine science, planning, policy development, management and for monitoring compliance. Its role is to encourage all concerned with the marine environment to work together towards agreed priorities and outcomes: and to ensure complementary approaches so that the impact of marine management activity across Scotland exceeds the sum of its constituent parts. While many of its activities are focused on marine issues, it also continues to play an important role in the research and management of freshwater fisheries.
Marine Scotland has around 700 staff, possessing a range of skills and professions including scientists, sea fishery officers, policy, administrative and professional/ technical staff. Staff are predominantly located in Edinburgh or the Marine Laboratory in Aberdeen, but Marine Scotland also have a Scotland-wide network of offices and field stations and support assets including 3 research vessels, 3 patrol vessels, 2 surveillance aircraft and a fisheries monitoring centre responsible for remote monitoring of fishing vessels.

Divisions and offices

Director's Office

Graham Black is the Director of Marine Scotland. The Director's Office provides corporate services such as business management, communications, and statistical or socio-economic analysis.

Office of the Chief Scientific Advisor Marine (OCSAM)

Professor Colin Moffat is the Chief Scientific Advisor Marine. The aim of the Office of the Chief Scientific Advisor Marine is to foster Scottish, UK and international co-operation in the areas of natural, economic and social marine science and provide clear advice to the Scottish Government and other International Organisations. The OCSAM division also provides support for information quality, data management, statistics, and geographic analysis and support.

Marine Scotland Compliance (MSC)

The Compliance division monitors and enforces marine and sea fishing laws in Scottish waters. It reports as appropriate to the Scottish prosecuting authorities and provides intelligence on fishing activity in the seas around Scotland.

Coastal Offices

Marine Scotland have 18 fishery offices located around Scotland.

Marine Protection Vessels

Marine Scotland have three Marine Protection Vessels :
Marine Scotland owns two Reims Cessna F-406 Caravan II aircraft for aerial surveillance, operated by Airtask

UK Fisheries Monitoring Centre

Marine Scotland operate the UK Fisheries Monitoring Centre, on behalf of the four UK fisheries administrations. The UKFMC acts as the UK single-point-of-contact for manual reporting of ERS, VMS and other EU/national fisheries schemes.

Marine Scotland Science (MSS)

Marine Scotland's Science division undertakes research and provides scientific and technical advice to the Scottish Government on a number of marine and fisheries issues including aquaculture and fish health, freshwater fisheries, sea fisheries and the marine ecosystem in Scotland's seas. MSS operates two research vessels which are fitted with a wide range of deployment and recovery facilities for fishing gear and equipment, scientific and environmental sensors, and data gathering systems:
MSS also have an additional vessel, the MV Temora, which is used for sampling as part of the Long Term Climate Change Monitoring Programme.
Tim McDonnell is the Head of Marine Scotland Science.

Marine Scotland Planning & Policy (MPP)

Marine Scotland's Planning & Policy division covers three main policy areas and the Licensing Operations Team.

Marine Spatial Planning

Marine Scotland are involved in marine spatial planning at both at a national and regional level. Scotland's was published in 2011 as a baseline assessment, with Scotland's first published in 2015. The information from the Atlas and National Marine Plan is available through and portals. These portals form part of the Marine Scotland Open Data Network which contributes towards Marine Scotland's INSPIRE and open data obligations

Offshore Marine Renewables

The Scottish Government is developing plans for offshore wind, wave and tidal energy in Scottish waters. Marine Scotland will explore how offshore wind, wave and tidal energy can contribute to meeting Scotland’s target of generating the equivalent of 100% of electricity demand from renewable sources and also seek to maximise the contribution of these technologies to achieving a low carbon economy.

Marine Conservation

Marine Scotland follows a strategy for Marine Nature Conservation in Scotland's Seas based on the three pillars of species conservation, site protection, and wider seas policies and measures. Work continues on a Marine Protected Area network with 30 nature conservation MPAs designated in 2014.

Licensing Operations Team (LOT)

The Marine Scotland Licensing Operations team is a central point-of-contact for activities such as depositing or removing objects or substances from the seabed; construction or alteration works, dredging; depositing or using explosives.

Aquaculture and Recreational Fisheries (ARF)

The ARF division handles policy areas covering Aquaculture, Salmon & Recreational Fisheries, Fishery Grants, Post-EU Referendum and the Crown Estate in Scotland.

Sea Fisheries

The Sea Fisheries division handles policy areas covering Access to Sea Fisheries, EU Quota Negotiations and Discards, Inshore Fisheries and Coastal Communities, and International Fisheries and Environmental Interactions.