Marine & Fisheries

UK waters cover an area approximately three times greater than the land and the UK’s coastline is the longest in the EU, Scotland accounts for around 60% of this coastline.

The marine and coastal environment plays an important role in Scotland’s culture, history and landscape. The sector also contributes around £2.2 billion per year to the Scottish economy.

Scotland's freshwater fish populations are of global renown; there are over 50,000 km of rivers and 30,000 lochs and there is a growing farmed fish and shellfish sector worth around £367 million per year.

Evidence suggests that changes in climate are already having an impact across Scotland’s marine and fisheries sector. A key challenge in the years ahead will be to understand how climate change is impacting the complex and interacting ecosystems that exist within marine and coastal environments. It is important to bear in mind that changes to one or two species can result in complex series of interlinking impacts cutting across entire ecosystems.

Key Impacts

The impact of increased ocean acidification, caused by the uptake of CO_2,is not yet fully understood however, experts have identified that increased acidification could: reduce the ability of species to form shells and skeletons, reduce growth and survival rates and, negatively impact reproduction, respiration and growth. See the Ocean Acidification section of the MCCIP ecosystem linkages report card for more information. The UK Ocean Acidification Research Programme has produced a short film aimed at communicating key information about ocean acidification, view the film here;
Warming of the seas around Scotland is likely to result in changes in the distribution and composition of fish stocks. Native species such as the Cod could decline and / or shift to more northerly locations and there is likely to be an increase in the incidence of southern species. The uncertainty of these changes poses a potential threat to the fishing industry and to many complex marine ecosystems.
Increases in rainfall intensity and resulting flooding could impact on freshwater fish such as salmon as river surges are likely to become more common. Increased land and water temperatures may also impact on spawning with unknown consequences affecting entire river ecosystems.
Non native species, suited to warmer waters, may become more prevalent in Scottish waters to the detriment of native species.
Seabirds sit at the top of the marine food chain and will be impacted by changes in the availability of their prey. Changes in fish distribution and the prevalence of different breeds will affect different bird species in different ways resulting in changes to entire marine and coastal eco systems.
Increases in sea level and the intensity of extreme weather events such as heavy rainfall may have negative impacts on coastal areas with increased erosion and flooding.
Further research is required in order to monitor ongoing changes in local marine and coastal environments and better understand how future changes in climate may impact highly sensitive marine and coastal ecosystems and the services that they provide.

Key Opportunities

Changes in climate may provide more favourable conditions for some fish stocks, particularly those that respond well to warmer waters.
Climate over the summer months is projected to become warmer and drier; this has the potential to boost tourism and recreation opportunities for coastal communities.

What’s happening?

The Scottish Government and partner organisations have expressed a strong commitment to developing ongoing research that will build upon current knowledge about the impacts of climate change on the marine and fisheries sector.

The information below outlines the work that is currently taking place across the marine and fisheries sector.

Scotland’s Climate Change Adaptation Framework

The Marine and Fisheries sector action plan within Scotland’s Climate Change Adaptation Framework provides an overview of how the sector will address climate change adaptation requirements. The sector action plan will be developed on an ongoing basis through consultation with key stakeholders and information provided by ongoing research and policy implementation.

Marine Climate Change Impacts Partnership

The Marine Climate Change Impacts Partnership (MCCIP) provides a co-ordinating framework within the UK for the transfer of high-quality marine climate change impacts evidence and advice to policy advisors and decision-makers. MCCIP produces peer reviewed guidance on an annual basis which aims to answer the following questions:

What is the current state of scientific understanding of marine climate change in our oceans and seas?
What changes have been observed and what could happen in the future?
How much of this is hard fact and how much is interpretation?

Guidance produced over the past four years includes three annual report cards and an ecosystem linkages report card further guidance will continue to be provided on an annual basis.

MCCIP also has a key role to play in identifying gaps in research, assembling expert views and advising on the development of integrated marine impacts monitoring programmes.

Marine Scotland

Marine Scotland is the lead marine management organisation in Scotland and a combination of world class scientific research, monitoring and management, its mission is to manage Scotland's seas and marine environment to improve them both for the use and enjoyment of future generations.

Marine Scotland is responsible for ensuring that climate change considerations are included as part of marine and fisheries planning and will play a key role in shaping the future development of the marine and fisheries climate change adaptation sector summary.

Adaptation action

CoastAdapt

CoastAdapt is a three-year EU European Regional Development Fund and Northern Periphery Programme funded project aimed at building the resilience of people living in North Atlantic coastal communities to the impacts of climate change. The project includes a pilot study site in the Western Isles and will seek to work with communities to develop and implement adaptation tools.

Scottish Natural Heritage

Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) plays a critical role in promoting, caring for and improving the natural heritage of Scotland’s marine, coastal and freshwater environments. SNH contributes through statutory and non statutory consultations and works in partnership with a wide range of organisations to ensure that impacts on the natural environment are appropriately considered as part of decision making and management processes.

SNH also develops research projects in order to better understand present and future impacts on the natural environment. The Shorelock Project aims to investigate the likely effects of, and the implications for, adapting to climate change for coastal habitats and geomorphological features within designated sites in Scotland over the next 100 years. The findings of this research will provide evidence to help support the development of future management plans for designated sites.

More Information

Marine Scotland

Marine Climate Change Impacts Partnership

Scottish Natural Heritage