Firth of Forth Banks Complex MPA

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

The Firth of Forth Banks Complex MPA is located in offshore waters to the east of Scotland, and includes the Berwick, Scalp and Montrose Banks, and the Wee Bankie shelf banks and mounds.

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Site

Located in offshore waters to the east of Scotland, the Firth of Forth Banks Complex MPA includes the Berwick, Scalp and Montrose Banks, and the Wee Bankie shelf banks and mounds.

Strongly influenced by water currents, the mosaic of different types of sands and gravels create a unique mixture of habitats that overlie the underwater banks and mounds within the MPA and support ocean quahog aggregations. The Wee Bankie includes moraines, formed from underwater glacial ridges deposited during the last Ice Age. The moraines here are scientifically important for their role in improving our understanding of the history of glaciation around Scotland.

More detailed site information can be found within the Summary section.

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Site Timeline

The diagram below is a summary of the key milestones involved in the selection and designation of Firth of Forth Banks Complex Nature Conservation MPA.  More detail can be found within the Relevant Documentation section.

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Relevant Documentation

The documents referred to below and any other historical documents relating to Firth of Forth Banks Complex Nature Conservation MPA were produced during the selection and designation process and therefore may be out of date.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 coordinates, 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 below.

These resources are available on JNCC's Resource Hub.

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Summary

Last updated: June 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

Owing to local current patterns in the area, the Firth of Forth Banks Complex is considered to be a relatively closed system where localised productivity is enhanced. Diverse and fine-scale current patterns result in a wide-ranging mosaic of different sedimentary habitats throughout the site, which support a range of benthic species, such as the common brittlestar, a species of soft coral known as Dead man's fingers, and hornwrack (a colonial bryozoan). The sand and gravel habitats also support the ocean quahog, which is considered to be Threatened and/or Declining by the OSPAR Commission and is a protected species of the MPA. Two further sites within the Northern North Sea biogeographic region that are also designated for ocean quahog aggregations and their associated habitat are the East of Gannet and Montrose Fields and Norwegian Boundary Sediment Plain MPAs. Together, these three sites contribute to the representativity, and therefore the resilience, of this protected feature in the MPA network.

There is evidence to suggest that two of the shelf bank and mound features within the MPA are of wider functional significance to the overall health and biodiversity of Scotland’s seas. Both Berwick Bank and Wee Bankie support sand and gravel habitats suitable for colonisation by sandeels, a key prey item for top predators in the North Sea food web. As such, the Firth of Forth shelf banks and mounds have been identified as critical for foraging seabirds and grey seals. Furthermore, Berwick Bank is also thought to be a spawning ground for plaice, the larvae of which may be important for repopulating exploited stocks along the east coast of England.

A large proportion of the Wee Bankie moraine formation is located within the Wee Bankie (including Scalp Bank) part of the MPA and is considered to be a key geodiversity area in Scotland’s seas. This formation is a series of prominent (20 m high) submarine glacial ridges, composed of poorly sorted sediments (boulders, gravels, sands and clays), and is considered important in furthering understanding of the last British-Irish Ice Sheet. Further detail on the evidence for this Nature Conservation MPA can be found in the Monitoring and Evidence section.

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

Site area:  2,130 km². Firth of Forth Banks Complex is similar in size to Snowdonia National Park (2,176 km²).

Site depth range:  The site ranges in depth from approximately 110 m below sea-level to just 30 m below sea-level on top of the shelf banks and mounds.

Charting Progress 2 Biogeographic Region: Northern North Sea.

Site boundary description: The Firth of Forth Banks Complex MPA is a composite site and the boundaries of each of the three areas were determined by the presence and extent of the important features contained within them. The Wee Bankie (inc. Scalp Bank) area boundary has been designed to protect its geomorphological and biological interests, as well as an important seabird and grey seal foraging areas. The Berwick Bank area boundary encompasses the bank feature and areas of known occurrences of adult ocean quahog in the MPA. Finally, Montrose Bank boundary encompasses a high diversity of sand and gravel habitats and an area where juvenile ocean quahog are known to occur.

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Monitoring and Evidence

Last updated: November 2023

There are a range of data that underpin this Nature Conservation MPA. 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 Firth of Forth Banks Complex Nature Conservation 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 Nature Conservation MPA has 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

• Firth of Forth Banks Complex Survey (2011) – This JNCC and Marine Directorate collaborative survey was commissioned to collect grab samples and photographic samples to enable the biological communities present at the site to be characterised.
• Marine Scotland Science International Bottom Trawl Survey (IBTS Q3) (2011) – JNCC collaborated with Marine Scotland Science to collect opportunistic video and photographic data on this survey during fish survey downtime.

 

Data analysis reports

• EUSeaMap – Provides supporting information on the presence and extent of seabed habitats, including protected habitat features from a predictive seabed habitat map of European waters.
• Seabed imagery analysis from three Scottish offshore surveys (Goudge and Morris 2014) – JNCC commissioned a contract to analyse the imagery collected from the opportunistic sampling during the IBTS Q3 survey and two other offshore surveys in Scottish waters.
• Analysis of sea bed imagery from the 2011 survey of the Firth of Forth Banks Complex, the 2011 IBTS Q4 survey and additional deep-water sites from Marine Scotland Science surveys (Allen et al. 2014) – JNCC commissioned a contract to analyse the imagery collected from the 2011 Firth of Forth Banks Complex survey and other offshore surveys in Scottish waters.
• Biotope assignment of grab samples from four surveys undertaken in 2011 across Scotland’s seas (Pearce et al. 2014) – JNCC commissioned a contract to undertake an analysis of grab samples collected during the 2011 Firth of Forth Banks Complex survey, alongside data from three other surveys in Scottish waters. This report provides the evidence base for presence of ocean quahog in the MPA, which is further supported by data supplied by oil and gas operations in the Northern North Sea.
• Mapping habitats and biotopes from acoustic datasets  (Sotheran and Crawford-Avis 2014a & Sotheran and Crawford-Avis 2014b) – Data gathered in the 2011 JNCC Firth of Forth Banks Complex survey that had been processed were used to produce seabed habitat maps that cover the majority of the MPA.
• Report on the identification of Key Geodiversity Areas in Scotttish waters (Brooks et al. 2013) – This report helped support information on the presence and extent of important geological/geomorphological areas in Scotland’s seas, which includes The Wee Bankie Key Geodiversity Area.

 

Additional relevant literature

References for further supporting scientific literature consulted during the identification of this site can be found in the 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 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 the Relevant Documentation section, please contact us.

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Conservation Advice

Last updated: February 2018

Updated formal conservation advice is now available for this MPA.  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 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 February 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 recovered 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 available on JNCC's Resource Hub.

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