Scapa Flow Proposed Historic Marine Protected Area (MPA) Partial Island Communities Impact Assessment (ICIA)

1. Step One - Develop a clear understanding of your objectives:

1.1 What are the objectives of the policy, strategy or service?

The Scottish Government is committed to clean, healthy, safe, productive, biologically diverse marine and coastal environments, managed to meet the long-term needs of people and nature. This includes protecting and, where appropriate, enhancing our most important historic wrecks and other marine heritage sites in such a way that they can be valued and understood. Under Section 67 of the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010 Scottish Ministers have powers to designate sites as Historic Marine Protected Areas (‘MPAs’) in order to protect marine assets (for example, historic shipwrecks) of national importance within Scottish territorial waters.

Scapa Flow has been proposed for designation as an Historic MPA due to the remains of historic shipwrecks and other structures of national importance that are located in and originate from Scapa Flow’s role as a Royal Navy base during the First (1914-18) and Second World Wars (1939-1945), as the anchorage where the German Imperial Navy’s High Seas Fleet was interned in 1918, and scuttled on 21 June 1919. Seven wrecks of the German High Seas Fleet, are currently recognised as nationally important scheduled monuments.

1.2 Do you need to consult?

The Marine (Scotland) Act 2010 requires Scottish Ministers to consult anyone who is likely to be interested in or affected by the proposed designation of an Historic MPA. A formal consultation was held on the proposal in 2019 and significant stakeholder engagement has taken place both before and after this.

See section 3 for more information on consultation and engagement.

1.3 How are islands identified for the purpose of the policy, strategy or service?

Islands have been identified according to the definition set out in the Islands (Scotland) Act 2018. That Act defines an island community as a community which consists of two or more individuals, all of whom permanently inhabit an island(whether or not the same island), and is based on common interest, identity or geography (including in relation to any uninhabited islands whose natural environment and terrestrial, marine and associated ecosystems contribute to the natural or cultural heritage of an inhabited island).

1.4 What are the intended impacts/outcomes and how do these potentially differ in the islands?

Historic Environment Scotland (HES) advise that many of the sites recorded through surveys undertaken since 2001 meet the criterion of national importance for designation as a Historic MPA. The range and quality of marine historic assets surviving on the seabed of Scapa Flow is outstanding and represents the largest relatively accessible concentration of warship wrecks and associated features in the UK, and possibly in European waters. These sites have a high potential to enhance our understanding about the key role Scapa Flow played as a naval base of outstanding strategic significance to the United Kingdom during both the First and Second World Wars of the 20th Century, and significant events in the wartime naval history of the North Atlantic that took place there.

The entire 20th-century naval history of Scapa Flow is illustrated at landscape scale through the survival of wrecks of naval ships, auxiliary vessels, a German submarine, the surviving remains of the German Imperial Navy’s High Seas Fleet interned at the end of the First World War, and remains of the marine defensive network. Taken together with information in archives, and museums, these sites have a high potential to enhance our understanding about 20th-century naval architecture, the operation of the naval harbour of Scapa Flow during wartime, German attempts to attack it, and the Admiralty’s ingenious and evolving strategies to defend Scapa Flow. This is perhaps most visible at the Churchill Barriers where the surviving blockships have become a fundamental part of the coastal landscape, a reminder of Orkney’s major contribution to the war effort.

The salvage sites of the German High Seas Fleet also have a high potential to help us understand the major programme of marine salvage that took place in Scapa Flow during the interwar years and continued after the Second World War. The marine historic assets within the area are directly connected with events which resonate with the public and are part of the national consciousness, such as the scuttling of the German High Seas Fleet. The loss of the sites within the area would significantly hinder our ability to understand these events and the key role played by Scapa Flow during two world wars.

The marine historic assets are located within an area that is an important economic marine resource and many of the wrecks are very popular for recreational diving. It is expected that designation will help to promote the heritage value of the sites, ensure that their national importance is considered in the management of change through planning and other regulatory processes, while fostering understanding and enjoyment amongst sea users.

Given the location of the proposed Historic MPA any potential impacts would be most likely to be felt in the Orkney Islands.

1.5 Is the policy, strategy or service new?

The overall policy of Historic MPAs is not new. Scottish Ministers were granted powers through the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010 to designate sites as Historic MPAs and the first such sites were designated in 2013. There are currently 8 sites across Scottish waters which have been designated as Historic MPAs. These are:

• Campania (Firth of Forth)
• Dartmouth (Sound of Mull)
• Drumbeg (Sutherland)
• Duart Point (Sound of Mull)
• Iona I (Firth of Clyde)
• Kinlochbervie (Sutherland)
• Mingary (Sound of Mull)
• Out Skerries (Shetland)

Additionally, three battleships and four cruisers of the German High Seas Fleet, which are included in the boundaries of the proposed Scapa Flow Historic MPA, are already afforded protection as scheduled monuments under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979. HES considers that the level of protection afforded to these wrecks through scheduling and designation as an Historic MPA is effectively the same.