Spatial tools to manage sustainable aquaculture in Scotland: Government and Industry

Kenny Black, Alexander G. Murray, and Matt Gubbins
Scottish Association for Marine Science
Scottish Marine Institute
Oban, Argyll PA37 1QA, UK

Aquaculture production, particularly of salmon, is of growing economic importance in Scotland.  Salmon now represents the UK's largest food export and provides employment in areas where there are few alternative year-round jobs.  However production takes place in a fluid environment and so area co-ordination is required to control disease spread and reduce conflicts with other users. A variety of different approaches have been developed for different scales and objectives, key area management tools are Disease Management Areas (DMAs) and Farm management Areas (FMAs).

DMAs are used by the Scottish Government for control of notifiable diseases.  DMAs were developed as part of the eradication programme for a major outbreak of infectious salmon anaemia in 1998/9.  The structure is simple, circles of fixed radius around farms identify potential epidemiological risk and sites with overlapping radii form a DMA that stretches until a break of at least 2 radii is reached.  Area movement controls and a co-ordinate fallow are applied to the DMA in the event of an outbreak. This simple robust structure proved effective at confining a second ISA outbreak (2008/9).  DMAs are easy to apply to aquaculture planning since the interaction of existing sites with any new site can be pre-defined.  There is a presumption against new sites that would link existing DMAs.

FMAs are groups of farms that collaborate for management purposes, particularly sea lice control regimes; increasingly FMAs  synchronise fallowing after production cycles.  The boundaries of FMAs are defined on the basis of local knowledge and practicality and do not have a simple objective basis.  Ministers have the power to alter boundaries, which have been changed as a result of experience.  Both epidemiological and social factors (such as ownership) may be important, since smooth co-operation is required if the FMAs are to be effective.

A variety of other spatial planning tools are used, including carrying capacity modelling for sea lochs (small fjords), reporting areas for salmon and shellfish production surveys and an aquaculture exclusion zone that encompasses the entire east and north coasts of Scotland as well as smaller zones associated with shipping, defence and energy generation.

To aid spatial planning the Scottish Government has developed a set of publications including: Scotland's Marine Atlas, Scotland's National Marine Plan, Scotland's Aquaculture Website, annual production surveys for both finfish and shellfish, Locational Guidelines for aquaculture and DMA Maps.  FMA maps are included in the Code of Good Practice for Scottish Finfish Production, an industry publication.