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Recovering Scotland's Marine Environment

Recovering Scotland’s Marine Environment is an independent report by Dr David Hughes and Dr Thom Nickell from the Scottish Association for Marine Science.

Focusing on features for which there is good evidence of decline, the report makes a strong case that Scotland’s marine environment is in a far from pristine state and is in real need of recovery. Many habitats and species have been seriously depleted over a long period as a result of human activities, fragile habitats are particularly vulnerable to some mobile fishing gear, while the discharge of organic waste and water-borne chemical contaminants can also lead to the depletion of certain species. Unsustainable fishing practices have led to the decline of some fish stocks.

Wave breaking Humans have been exploiting the living marine resources of Scotland for at least 10,000 years. This fact, considered alongside the emerging perspectives from historical marine ecology, mean that all coastal ecosystems in Scotland should probably be regarded as having been modified by human activity to some degree. It is unlikely that there remain any “pristine” (i.e. completely natural and free from human influence) ecosystems on the Scottish continental shelf, and even the deep waters beyond the shelf edge are now subject to significant human impacts in the form of deep-water trawling. The case studies from Scottish waters examined in this report support the general scientific consensus that use of mobile fishing gear, particularly bottom-trawls and dredges, is the most pervasive form of human disturbance to the seabed environment and the most significant cause of ecosystem degradation in coastal seas. Other processes, such as discharge of organic waste and water-borne chemical contaminants can be locally important, but are of much lower overall impact than the use of mobile fishing gear.