Area management - areas where commercial fishing is prohibited or restricted (marine fisheries closed areas) - includes measures which contribute to the Marine Protected Area (MPA) network

Fishing pressures can be managed using spatial measures such as prohibiting or restricting certain types of fishing, target species, or vessel capacity. This dataset depicts restrictions defined by EU, UK and Scottish legislation since 1986. Does not include boundaries for the voluntary system of Real Time Closures (RTCs) or the legislative juvenile RTCs. Polygons were simplified for web use and are for illustrative purposes only. Guidance should be sought from Fishery Offices on interpreting legislation. In the 2012 "Report to the Scottish Parliament on Progress to Identify a Scottish Network of Marine Protected Areas" (http://www.gov.scot/Resource/0041/00410766.pdf), eight fisheries restriction areas were also considered to contribute to the MPA network as existing "other area based measures". Four of these areas overlap with Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) and have now been removed from the list.