Shellfish water protected areas
Legislation directs SEPA to assess and classify each shellfish protected area. To deliver this we work closely with Food Standards Scotland (FSS). FSS sample, analyse and report water quality in production areas throughout the year to ensure shellfish are safe for consumption, or determine if they require further treatment. At the end of each year FSS provide SEPA with this data who use it to classify the wider shellfish water protected areas (SWPA). SEPAs classification gives an overview of the water quality over the year for the whole SWPA. This allows us to identify longer term trends and is used to give an indication of where resources should be targeted for further investigation to identify sources of pollution and seek improvements.
Summary documents of the results from each of the SWPAs are listed below.
Shellfish Water Protected Area (SWPA) summary documents:
- SWPA 1: Ardtoe and Loch Ceann Traigh
- SWPA 2: Arisaig
- SWPA 3: Baltasound Voe
- SWPA 4: Bay of Firth
- SWPA 5: Broadford Bay and Kyle Area
- SWPA 6: Basta Voe, Yell
- SWPA 7: Cais - bhaigh, Enard Bay
- SWPA 8: Cat Firth
- SWPA 9: Clift Sound
- SWPA 10: Colonsay
- SWPA 11: Cromarty Bay
- SWPA 12: Dales Voe
- SWPA 13: Dornoch Firth
- SWPA 14: East Loch Tarbert
- SWPA 15: East Tarbert Bay
- SWPA 16: Fairlie
- SWPA 17: Gruting Voe
- SWPA 18: Hamna Voe
- SWPA 19: Hawksness
- SWPA 20: Isle of Ulva, Mull (Loch Tuath)
- SWPA 21: Kerrera
- SWPA 22: Kyle of Tongue
- SWPA 23: Kyles of Bute
- SWPA 24: Lamlash
- SWPA 25: Lismore
- SWPA 26: Little Loch Broom
- SWPA 27: Loch a Chumhainn
- SWPA 28: Loch Ailort
- SWPA 29: Loch Ainort
- SWPA 30: Loch Beag
- SWPA 31: Loch Caroy
- SWPA 32: Loch Creran
- SWPA 33: Loch Eil
- SWPA 34: Loch Eishort
- SWPA 35: Loch Eriboll
- SWPA 36: Loch Erisort
- SWPA 37: Loch Etive
- SWPA 38: Loch Ewe
- SWPA 39: Loch Fyne
- SWPA 40: Loch Glendhu
- SWPA 41: Loch Gruinart
- SWPA 42: Loch Harport
- SWPA 43: Loch Inchard
- SWPA 44: Loch Kishorn
- SWPA 45: Loch Laxford
- SWPA 46: Loch Leurbost
- SWPA 47: Loch Leven
- SWPA 48: Loch Long
- SWPA 49: Loch Melfort
- SWPA 50: Loch Moidart, South Channel
- SWPA 51: Loch Nevis
- SWPA 52: Loch Roag
- SWPA 53: Loch Scridain
- SWPA 54: Loch Seaforth
- SWPA 55: Loch Slapin
- SWPA 56: Loch Sligachan
- SWPA 57: Loch Snizort
- SWPA 58: Loch Spelve
- SWPA 59: Loch Stockinish
- SWPA 60: Loch Striven
- SWPA 61: Loch Tarbert
- SWPA 62: Lunna
- SWPA 63: Lynn of Lorn
- SWPA 64: Mid Yell Voe
- SWPA 65: Muckle Roe Area
- SWPA 66: North Uist
- SWPA 67: Ronas Voe Area
- SWPA 68: Sandsound Voe
- SWPA 69: Scarvar Ayre, Dales Voe
- SWPA 70: Seil Sound
- SWPA 71: Seil Ardencaple
- SWPA 72: Sound of Barra
- SWPA 73: Sound of Kerrera
- SWPA 74: South Uist
- SWPA 75: South Wick, Cullivoe
- SWPA 76: Stromness Voe
- SWPA 77: Tobermory
- SWPA 78: Upper Loch Torridon
- SWPA 79: Uyea Sound
- SWPA 80: Vaila Sound
- SWPA 81: Wadbister Voe
- SWPA 82: Weisdale Voe
- SWPA 83: West of Scalloway
- SWPA 84: Whale Firth
- SWPA 85: Loch Ryan
The legislation
The Water Environment (Shellfish Water Protected Areas: Designation) (Scotland) Order 2013 identifies 84 coastal SWPAs. The Water Environment (Shellfish Water Protected Areas: Designation) (Scotland) Order 2016 (legislation.gov.uk) designated the 85th SWPA, Loch Ryan. This legislation brought the protection and improvement of shellfish waters into the river basin management planning process via the Water Environment (Shellfish Water Protected Areas: Environmental Objectives etc.) (Scotland) Regulations 2013. The Scotland River Basin District (Quality of Shellfish protected Areas) (Scotland) Directions 2015. The directions were updated following consultation by Scottish Government in 2021. The Scotland River Basin District (Quality of Shellfish Water Protected Areas) (Scotland) Directions 2021 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot), and The Water Environment (Shellfish Water Protected Areas: Objectives and Classification etc.) (Solway Tweed) Directions 2021.
Contact us
For further information, please contact us.