Orkney Islands Regional Marine Plan

Appendix 5: Priority Marine Features

Table A3: Priority Marine Features in the Orkney Islands marine region

To view the latest Priority Marine Feature records, visit National Marine Plan Interactive

Broad habitat

Blue mussel beds

Flame shell beds

Horse mussel beds

Intertidal mudflats

Kelp and seaweed communities on sublittoral sediment

Kelp beds

Low or variable salinity habitats

Maerl beds

Native oysters

Seagrass beds

Tide-swept algal communities

Tide-swept coarse sands with burrowing bivalves

Low or limited mobility species

Northern feather star – Leptometra celtica

Fan mussel – Atrina fragilis

Ocean quahog – Arctica islandica

Mobile species

European spiny lobster – Palinurus elephas

European eel – Anguilla anguilla

Atlantic salmon – Salmo salar

Sea lamprey – Petromyzon marinus

Sea trout – Salmo trutta

Sparling – Osmerus eperlanus

Angler fish – Lophius piscatorius

Atlantic halibut – Hippoglossus hippoglossus

Atlantic herring – Clupea harengus

Atlantic mackerel – Scomber scombrus

Cod – Gadus morhua

Greenland halibut – Reinhardtius hippoglossoides

Horse mackerel – Trachurus trachurus

Ling – Molva molva

Norway pout – Trisopterus esmarkii

Round-nose grenadier – Coryphaenoides rupestris

Saithe – Pollachius virens

Sandeels – Ammodytes marinus and Ammodytes tobianus

Sand goby – Pomatoschistus minutus

Whiting – Merlangius merlangus

Basking shark – Cetorhinus maximus

Common skate – Dipturus batis complex

Porbeagle shark – Lamna nasus

Spiny dogfish – Squalus acanthias

Atlantic white-sided dolphin – Lagenorhynchus acutus

Bottlenose dolphin – Tursiops truncates

Fin whale – Balaenoptera physalus

Harbour porpoise – Phocoena phocoena

Killer whale – Orcinus orca

Long-finned pilot whale – Globicephala melas

Minke whale – Balaenoptera acutorostrata

Northern bottlenose whale – Hyperoodon ampullatus

Risso’s dolphin – Grampus griseus

Short-beaked common dolphin – Delphinus delphis

Sowerby’s beaked whale – Mesoplodon bidens

Sperm whale – Physeter macrocephalus

White-beaked dolphin – Lagenorhynchus albirostris

Harbour seal – Phoca vitulina

Grey seal – Halichoerus grypus

Otter – Lutra lutra