The West of Scotland Marine Protected Area covers a large area of the

North Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the "Old World" of Africa, Europe and ...

to the west of the

Outer Hebrides The Outer Hebrides () or Western Isles ( gd, Na h-Eileanan Siar or or ("islands of the strangers"); sco, Waster Isles), sometimes known as the Long Isle/Long Island ( gd, An t-Eilean Fada, links=no), is an island chain off the west coast ...

. The Marine Protected Area (MPA) was designated by the Scottish Government in 2020, replacing the

Rosemary Bank Rosemary Bank is a seamount approximately west of Scotland, located in the Rockall Trough, in the northeast Atlantic. It was discovered in 1930 by the survey vessel HMS ''Rosemary'', from which it takes its name. It is one of only three seamoun ...

MPA, which covered a much smaller area. Covering a sea area of over , it is the largest marine protected area in Europe. The MPA covers a diverse range of marine landscapes. Moving west, these include: the steep gradient of the continental slope; the sediment plains of the Rockall Trough; and the rising slopes of

George Bligh Bank George Bligh Bank is a seamount that lies in the Rockall Trough. It is a roughly circular feature in the northeast Atlantic, west of Scotland, centred at approximately 59°N, 14°W at the northern end of both the Hatton and Rockall Banks. The ba ...

and the Rockall Bank. The area also includes two isolated

seamounts A seamount is a large geologic landform that rises from the ocean floor that does not reach to the water's surface (sea level), and thus is not an island, islet or cliff-rock. Seamounts are typically formed from extinct volcanoes that rise abru ...

: Anton Dohrn and

. It protects several important habitats including deep-sea sponge aggregations and cold water coral reefs and gardens. Six species of deep-sea fish are specifically protected within the MPA:

blue ling The blue ling (''Molva dypterygia'') is a member of the cod family from the North Atlantic. It is usually 70 to 110 cm long, but the maximum length is 155 cm. Blue ling feed on fish (flatfishes, gobies, rocklings) and crustaceans and be ...

orange roughy The orange roughy (''Hoplostethus atlanticus''), also known as the red roughy, slimehead and deep sea perch, is a relatively large deep-sea fish belonging to the slimehead family (Trachichthyidae). The UK Marine Conservation Society has categoriz ...

leafscale gulper shark The leafscale gulper shark (''Centrophorus squamosus'') is a dogfish of the family Centrophoridae. ''C. squamosus'' is reported to have a lifespan of approximately 70 years, based on otolith ring counts. It was the first described species in ...

, gulper shark,

Portuguese dogfish The Portuguese dogfish (''Centroscymnus coelolepis'') or Portuguese shark, is a species of sleeper shark of the family Somniosidae. This globally distributed species has been reported down to a depth of , making it the deepest-living shark known. ...

and round-nose grenadier.

References

External links

West of Scotland Marine Protected Area
- YouTube video produced by the Joint Nature Conservation Committee Nature Conservation Marine Protected Areas of Scotland Atlantic Ocean {{scotland-geo-stub