Faroe-Shetland Sponge Belt MPA

Status: Nature Conservation Marine Protected Area (Nature Conservation MPA)

The Faroe-Shetland Sponge Belt MPA lies in offshore waters to the west of the Shetland Islands. The site is located on the Scottish side of the Faroe-Shetland Channel, a large rift basin that separates the Scottish and Faroese continental shelves.

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Site

The Faroe-Shetland Sponge Belt MPA is located in offshore waters on the Scottish side of the Faroe-Shetland Channel, a large rift basin that separates the Scottish and Faroese continental shelves.

Five different water masses meet in the Faroe-Shetland Channel, which interact with each other and the continental slope to generate ideal conditions for the boreal 'ostur' type of deep-sea sponge aggregations to settle. Offshore subtidal sands and gravels are also present, supporting a diversity of polychaete worms and a slow-growing bivalve mollusc known as ocean quahog. The site contains an area of continental slope which could be important for maintaining the health and biodiversity of Scotland’s Seas.

More detailed site information can be found in the Summary section below.

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Site Timeline

The diagram below is a summary of the key milestones involved in the selection and designation of the Faroe-Shetland Sponge Belt MPA. More detail can be found within the Relevant Documentation section below.

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Relevant Documentation

The documents referred to below and any other historical documents relating to Faroe-Shetland Sponge Belt were produced during the selection and designation process and therefore may be out of date. This Site Information Centre is the most up-to-date source of information for this MPA, and will reflect any additional information gathered since these documents were produced. Information about the Nature Conservation MPA site selection process is available on JNCC's Nature Conservation MPA webpages.

• Site Summary Document – Overview of the site and the protected features.
• Data Confidence Assessment – Sets out our confidence in the presence and extent of the protected features.
• Assessment against MPA Selection Guidelines – Details the application of the five stages of the Scottish MPA Selection Guidelines.
• Management Options Paper – Considers the management options for achieving the Conservation Objectives for each of the protected features in the MPA.
• Designation Order – Scottish Ministerial Order for the designation, including MPA boundary co-ordinates, and information on Conservation Objectives.
• Business Regulatory Impact Assessment – An assessment of the environmental, social and economic costs and benefits of the designation.
• JNCC’s formal conservation advice for this site is accessible within the Conservation Advice section.

These documents are all available on JNCC's Resource Hub.

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Summary

Last updated: October 2017

The information for this site summary was adapted from documents listed in the Relevant Documentation section and incorporates any further information gathered since these documents were produced.

 

Site overview

The Faroe-Shetland Sponge Belt MPA lies in offshore waters to the west of the Shetland Islands. The site is located on the Scottish side of the Faroe-Shetland Channel, a large rift basin that separates the Scottish and Faroese continental shelves. Five different water masses meet in the Faroe-Shetland Channel, including water with sub-zero temperatures from the Arctic and relatively warmer waters from the North-east Atlantic. These water masses have different temperatures and densities and so layers are created in the water column. The layers interact with the sloping sides of the channel to produce an area of mixing between 350 m and 650 m depth, referred to as the intermediate water masses. Biodiversity in the MPA is thought to be linked to the intermediate water masses and the peak in benthic diversity and abundance occurs within the same depth range.

The higher current speeds created by the intermediate water masses, along with the presence of cobbles and boulders associated with iceberg ploughmarks, generate ideal conditions for the settlement of sponges. Deep-sea sponge aggregations are an OSPAR Threatened and/or Declining habitat and have been recorded in the channel between 400 m and 600 m depth. The type of deep-sea sponge aggregation which occurs within the Faroe-Shetland Sponge Belt MPA is boreal 'ostur'. Boreal 'ostur' sponge aggregations typically have a high abundance of species of giant sponge (Demospongia), which local fishermen refer to as "Osterbunds" or "cheese-bottoms" due to their appearance. The sponges themselves often support a range of other species, for example by providing shelter for fish species and perches for filter feeders such as brittlestars. Within the UK, the boreal 'ostur' sponge aggregations only occur within the biogeographic region which includes the Faroe-Shetland Channel.

There are two distinct sedimentary communities within the site representative of offshore subtidal sands and gravels; one is found between 300 m and 600 m and is characterised by a greater proportion of cobbles and boulders; and a second below 600 m, characterised by finer sands and muddy sands. The two communities are dominated by contrasting families of polychaete worm. The sedimentary habitats in the MPA also support ocean quahog (Arctica islandica). This species of bivalve mollusc is usually buried in sand and muddy sand, and can regularly live for over 100 years. Ocean quahog are an OSPAR Threatened and/or Declining species.

The MPA also includes an area of continental slope. It is thought that the Faroe-Shetland Channel continental slope is important for maintaining the health and biodiversity of Scotland’s seas. The interaction between the various water masses and the channel slope create conditions that supply organic material to sponges and other benthic fauna, as well as aggregating prey. The wider Faroe-Shetland Channel may be an important pathway for migrating fin and sperm whales.

Five geodiversity features are included in the MPA which are representative of the West Shetland Margin palaeo-depositional system and the West Shetland Margin contourite deposits Key Geodiversity Areas. The sand and sediment wave fields in the West Shetland Margin contourite deposits were formed during interglacial periods and are unique to UK waters. Geodiversity features in the West Shetland Margin palaeo-depositional system were created in the last glacial period. During the last ice age, icebergs scoured the seabed leaving iceberg ploughmarks that remain on the sea floor. These iceberg ploughmark fields are associated with cobbles and boulders, which are ideal settlement points for deep-sea sponge aggregations.

Site location: Co-ordinates for this Nature Conservation MPA can be found in the Designation Order listed in the Relevant Documentation section.

Site area: 5,278 km²; roughly the same in area as the county of Sutherland at 5,252 km².

Site depth range: The shallowest parts of the Faroe-Shetland Sponge Belt MPA are 400 m below sea-level, however depths within the site reach 800 m below sea-level in the Faroe-Shetland Channel.

Charting Progress 2 Biogeographic Region: The MPA spans the boundary between the Scottish Continental Shelf region and the Atlantic North-West Approaches, Rockall Trough and Faroe/Shetland Channel region.

Site boundary description:  The 400 m and 800 m depth bands were used to draw the site boundary. This depth band encompasses the diversity of hydrographic conditions present in the Faroe-Shetland Channel. The boundary also covers the depth band (400 m to 700 m) at which the peak in benthic diversity and abundance occurs. All records of ocean quahog in this part of the Faroe-Shetland Channel are included in the site boundary, along with types of offshore subtidal sand and gravel habitats that are considered suitable ocean quahog habitat. The MPA covers all the records of deep-sea sponge aggregations in this area of the Faroe-Shetland Channel and includes the depth band where deep-sea sponge aggregations are known to occur in the wider region (400 m–600 m).

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Monitoring and Evidence

Last updated: November 2023

The full overview of the data used to support site identification along with information on confidence in feature presence and extent is available in the Faroe-Shetland Sponge Belt MPA Data Confidence Assessment. JNCC will be adding relevant survey data for this MPA to its MPA mapper in due course.

Some of the data for this MPA have been collected through JNCC-funded or collaborative surveys and some through other means. Data from these surveys provide direct evidence confirming the presence of the protected features within the site.

 

Survey and data gathering

• Faroe-Shetland Sponge Belt MPA survey (2021) – This was a collaborative survey between JNCC and Marine Scotland Science which collected data to contribute to the development of a monitoring time-series. In total 184 drop-camera transects (still images and video footage), 10 chariot camera transects (video footage) and five deep-sea Hamon grab samples (for eDNA protocol testing) were collected on the survey. 
• Faroe Shetland Sponge Belt NCMPA, Wyville Thomson Ridge SAC and Rosemary Bank NCMPA monitoring survey (2018) – This was a collaborative survey between JNCC and Marine Scotland Science which collected data to inform monitoring time-series. At Faroe Shetland Sponge Belt, 33 hours of Chariot-camera towed-video data were collected and 47 Hamon grabs were sampled for infauna and Particle size analysis.
• Wyville Thomson Ridge and Faroe-Shetland Channel proposed MPA Survey (2012) – This survey was a collaboration between JNCC and Marine Scotland Science. Video and camera imagery were collected to support evidence on the presence and extent of deep-sea sponge aggregations and offshore subtidal sands and gravels within the MPA.
• Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) Survey (2006) – The SEA surveys were commissioned by the Department of Trade and Industry (now Department for Energy and Climate Change, DECC). These surveys, in which JNCC collaborated, collected multibeam and underwater imagery data from areas off the north and west coasts of Scotland.
• Surveys of the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) 4 Region (1996-2000) – A series of dedicated environmental surveys were carried out in the SEA4 region, which includes the Faroe-Shetland Channel, between 1996 and 2000. The earlier surveys were undertaken on behalf of AFEN (Atlantic Frontier Environmental Network, a consortium of oil companies, UK government environmental advisers (JNCC, Fisheries Research Services (now Marine Scotland Science, MSS)) and the UK Department for Trade and Industry (now DECC). Further surveys were carried out as part of DECC’s SEA process. The surveys collected physical samples of the sea floor along with acoustic data.
• Oil and gas operators in the Northern North Sea area have provided data that supports the presence of ocean quahog within the MPA boundary.

 

Data analysis reports

• EMODnet – Provides supporting information on the presence and extent of offshore subtidal sands and gravels from a predictive seabed habitat map of European waters.
• Application of the OSPAR definition of deep-sea sponge aggregations (2014) – JNCC commissioned a contract to apply the OSPAR definition of deep-sea sponge aggregations to verify suspected records of the habitat in UK waters. Survey data from this site was included in that contract and supported with high confidence presence of the 'boreal-ostur' type of deep-sea sponge aggregations.
• Analysis of video and still images to characterise habitats and macrobenthos (2014) – Marine EcoSol were contracted by JNCC to analyse data from the 2012 survey of the Wyville-Thomson Ridge and Faroe-Shetland Sponge Belt. Deep-sea sponge aggregations were identified on several stills and video tows, supporting the presence of this feature in the MPA.
• Report on the identification of Key Geodiversity Areas in Scotland's seas (2013) – This report helped support information on the presence and extent of important geological/geomorphological areas in Scotland’s seas, which includes The West Shetland Margin Paleo-Depositional System and West Shetland Margin Contourite Deposits Key Geodiversity Areas of relevance to this Nature Conservation MPA.
• Seafloor biotope analysis of the deep waters of the SEA4 region (2012) – Data from this site were included in a contract to identify, map and describe the seabed biotopes of the SEA4 region of Scottish seas. The analysis provides evidence of the presence and extent of different types of offshore subtidal sand and gravel habitats within the Faroe-Shetland Sponge Belt MPA.
• Photographic analysis report of the SEA/SAC Survey (2007) – Howell et al. (2007) analysed the images from the 2006 Strategic Environmental Assessment Survey. The results support the presence of offshore subtidal sand and gravels, deep-sea sponge aggregations, continental slope channels and iceberg ploughmarks within the MPA.

 

Additional relevant literature

References for further supporting scientific literature consulted during the identification of this site can be found in the Faroe-Shetland Sponge Belt MPA Data Confidence Assessment. Please be aware that although these sources contain information in relation to this MPA, they do not necessarily represent the views of JNCC.

 

Knowledge gaps

As part of the UK Marine Monitoring and Assessment Strategy (UKMMAS), JNCC led the development of a UK Marine Biodiversity Monitoring Strategy, working with partners across the UK monitoring community. The Strategy spans UK territorial and offshore waters, focusing on biodiversity in the wider environment and within Marine Protected Areas.  Its aim is to implement efficient, integrated monitoring of marine biodiversity to provide the evidence needed for all the UK's policy drivers.

The Marine Directorate of Scottish Government, in partnership with JNCC and NatureScot, developed a Scottish Marine Protected Area (MPA) monitoring strategy. The Strategy spans Scottish territorial and offshore waters, focusing on biodiversity within Marine Protected Areas. The Strategy is supported by a series of annexes which provide more detail on monitoring methods, collaborative working, current monitoring and a two year forward look for MPA monitoring in Scottish waters.

The evidence collected during MPA monitoring surveys is used in combination with other available evidence to:

• Enable assessment of condition of the features within sites;
• Contribute to the assessment of the degree to which management measures are effective in achieving the conservation objectives for the protected features;
• Support the identification of priorities for future protection and/or management; and,
• Enable Government to fulfil its national and international assessment and reporting commitments in relation to MPAs and help identify where further action may be required.

More detail on offshore MPA monitoring can be found on the Offshore MPA monitoring webpage. A list of monitoring surveys and relevant reports can be found on the MPA monitoring survey reports webpage.

If you are aware of any additional information not referred to in any of the Relevant Documentation section, please contact us.

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Conservation Advice

Last updated: April 2018

Updated formal conservation advice for this MPA was produced in April 2018.  Further information on the approach used to develop this advice is available on the Conservation Advice webpage along with a Glossary of Terms used in JNCC's conservation advice and a short video explaining how to use the conservation advice packages. 

You must refer to this advice if you:

• undertake an impact assessment for a plan or project that could impact the site;
• provide information for such an assessment;
• respond to specific measures to further the conservation objectives for the site; and 
• consider the need to put new or additional management measures in place.

You may also find it useful to refer to this advice if you:

• carry out any other activity that could impact the site.

We will engage with stakeholders to identify any lessons which JNCC can learn from customers who have used the advice, with a view to continuing to ensure it is fit-for-purpose.

The following table provides an overview of the components of the conservation advice, and provides hyperlinks to each of the products for this MPA. These elements together form JNCC’s formal conservation advice for this site and should be read in conjunction with each other. This advice reflects the most up-to-date evidence held by JNCC (correct as of April 2018). 

Document	Overview
Background Information	Explains the purpose of the advice and when it must be referred to.
Conservation Objectives Supplementary Advice on the Conservation Objectives (SACO)	The Conservation Objectives set out the broad ecological aims for the site. JNCC provides supplementary advice in the SACO which is essential reading to support interpretation of these conservation objectives. It provides further detail and site-specific information for each feature within the site including which of the attributes need to be conserved and which ones recovered. You can use these documents to assess the impacts of your planned activity on the important attributes of the site. Please note our current understanding of whether the available evidence indicates that each attribute needs to be restored or maintained is not provided here. However, links to available evidence for the site are provided and should you require further site-specific information for the site, please contact us.
Conservation Advice Statements	These statements provide a summary of the Supplementary Advice on the Conservation Objectives (SACO) Site condition presents our up-to-date understanding of the condition of features within the site; Conservation benefits which the site can provide, these help you understand what is important about the site and why it needs protecting; and Conservation measures which JNCC considers are needed to support achievement of the conservation objectives. These provide clarity around measures needed to support restoration or maintenance of the feature(s) within the site.
Advice on Operations	Provides information on the activities capable of affecting site integrity and therefore achievement of the site’s conservation objectives. This is a starting point for determining potential management requirements. It does not take into account the intensity, frequency or cumulative impacts from activities taking place. It is simply to advise you of the possible adverse impacts that your activity can have on a MPA’s features. Use the advice on operations to determine those pressures your activity causes that could harm the habitat and/or species features of the site.

These documents are all available on JNCC's Resource Hub.

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