15 Sep 2026
Photo by AJ Wallace The Scottish Government has opened a public consultation on proposed fisheries management measures covering more than 160 marine protected areas (MPAs) and priority marine feature (PMF) sites across Scotland’s inshore waters, in what officials have described as one of the most extensive exercises of its kind. The consultation, launched on Monday 14 […]
08 Sep 2026
Photo by Arnaud Mariat First Minister John Swinney used the Programme for Government 2026 to 2031, published on 1 September, to confirm plans to fold several of Scotland’s environmental regulators into a single body, prompting swift but carefully worded responses from the organisations affected, and sharper questions from MSPs and unions in the days since. […]
08 Sep 2026
Photo by Tim Morgan Puffin numbers at one of the UK’s largest colonies have fallen by around 30% in two years, according to a new burrow count carried out by NatureScot and the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH) on the Isle of May National Nature Reserve in the Firth of Forth. A sharp decline […]
18 Aug 2026
Photo by Michael Grant Scotland’s marine minister has confirmed that a consultation on new fishing restrictions across more than 160 inshore Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) and sensitive habitats will launch “in the coming weeks”, with the consultation period extended to 16 weeks to allow fishing communities more time to respond. Jim Fairlie MSP, minister […]
18 Aug 2026
Photo by Bob Brewer Scotland’s seabirds remain in long-term decline, with average numbers now around half what they were in the 1980s, according to new statistics published by NatureScot on 13 August. A steep long-term fall The Scottish Biodiversity Indicator for Seabirds, which draws on data from the UK Seabird Monitoring Programme, assessed 19 of the 24 […]
04 Aug 2026
Photo by Ray Harrington Permission has been refused for this year’s guga hunt, the centuries-old harvest of young gannets on the uninhabited Hebridean island of Sula Sgeir, after NatureScot’s board concluded the cull could harm a gannet population still recovering from avian flu. The decision, confirmed on 3 August, brings to a halt Scotland’s last remaining […]
12 May 2026
Photo by Igor Francetic Three ScotWind offshore wind developers have joined forces with Crown Estate Scotland and NatureScot to fund a two-year acoustic study of minke whale activity in a marine protected area that lies directly in the path of planned grid connection infrastructure off the Aberdeenshire coast. The study, led by the Scottish […]
03 Mar 2026
Photo by Ekaterina Zlotnikova Scotland’s largest known flame shell bed has made a complete recovery following the designation of a Marine Protected Area in Loch Carron, Wester Ross, a result that researchers and conservationists are hailing as a model for decisive marine protection. Two reports commissioned by NatureScot found that flame shell beds in the […]
