For the past year now, The Ferret has been investigating the health of Scotland’s seas.
The Scotland’s Seas in Danger project – funded by Journalismfund Europe – is a collaboration with Fada Collective and the Investigative Reporting Project Italy (IRPI).
Our aim has been to highlight problems and solutions to pressing issues impacting our oceans and seas, which produce more than half the world’s oxygen and hold most of the planet’s nature. They also support nearly half the global population’s livelihoods, providing crucial food, jobs and energy.
But the marine environment is at risk, and our investigation has spotlighted threats to our waters from climate change, fish farming, oil spills, and plastic pollution, among other issues.

The final report of our series – a collaboration with IRPI – explains what’s been happening with marine protected areas (MPAs) in both Scotland and Italy.
These environmental protection zones are intended to safeguard a wide range of marine features – including important habitats, aquatic life and geological features.
Both Scotland and Italy have made bold claims over their MPAs, but green campaigners in both countries fear their respective governments are failing to protect these threatened seas.
What protections does Scotland have in place for its waters?
In Scotland Marine protected areas (MPAs) span 247 sites, covering 37 per cent of Scottish seas. These areas were designated for protection in 2014.
Inside these MPAs, activities like fishing, aquaculture and energy infrastructure are allowed, if they are licensed and in line with legislation.
The Scottish Government can issue fines for breaking rules in MPAs, such as fishing within restricted areas.
Different types of protection zones exist, including nature conservation MPAs, special areas of conservation, special protection areas, sites of special scientific interest, and Ramsar sites, which cover wetlands of “international importance”.

Why are green groups criticising the Scottish Government over MPAs?
Green groups claim that many MPAs are vulnerable to the impact of poorly-managed fishing such as scallop dredging and bottom trawling because ministers have failed to tighten laws on controversial fishing methods.
Scallop dredging and bottom-trawling – the most environmentally harmful forms of fishing – are restricted in less than five per cent of Scotland’s seas. Scallop dredging involves heavy-duty metal framed nets being pulled over the seabed, while bottom-trawling involves nets towed to catch fish and other marine species close to the seabed.
In 2021 the Scottish Government said it was committed to establishing new fisheries management measures for MPAs by March 2024. But these commitments have been pushed back.
Attempts to strengthen protections for marine sea life ran into controversy, particularly the government’s proposal to introduce highly protected marine areas (HPMAs). It was planned that these areas would cover about ten per cent of Scotland’s seas, with a number of activities believed to put pressure on marine environments banned or severely restricted within their boundaries.
When the plan was announced, it was criticised by some in coastal communities as well as island and fishing industry organisations. The HPMA policy was shelved after this criticism and the response to a consultation, which showed strong opposition to the proposed plans.
Last year, the Our Seas coalition – which comprises more than 130 organisations including community groups, marine conservationists and fishers – claimed the biggest threat to the marine environment was the government’s “ongoing failure to protect it due to broken promises and endless delays”.

In response, the Scottish Government told The Ferret that new measures to protect MPAs remain a “top government priority” and it is now consulting with a view to updating the National Marine Plan.
But it could be 2027 before any new legislation is put before the Scottish Parliament, prompting fresh criticism over delays in enacting laws to better protect the marine environment.
Critics of the government include campaign group, Open Seas, which told The Ferret: “While the Scottish Government prevaricates with endless consultations, environmental damage is continuing under its watch. Repeatedly broken promises give the impression of a government that is not committed to protecting our environment, let alone recovering the degraded condition of our seas.
“Open Seas have documented ongoing damage to marine habitats inside MPAs and in areas that the Scottish Government have already pledged to protect.”
Last month the government reported to the Scottish Parliament on MPAs and said: “Our priority remains putting in place management measures for fishing activity for those MPAs where measures are required to meet the MPA conservation objectives. This is an unprecedented piece of work which has involved a significant amount of stakeholder engagement over a number of years.”

Italy’s marine protected areas
The Italian authorities have also been condemned by green groups over marine protection.
Italy currently has 30 MPAs, covering about 11.6 per cent of coasts, according to ISPRA, an environmental research institute.
These protected areas were established over the course of 40 years. In 1991 a landmark “framework law on protected areas” listed 52 sites with high marine biodiversity, where conservation measures were urgent. The law is currently under revision.
However, these official figures have been challenged by environmental groups. In July 2024, Greenpeace reported that only 0.9 per cent of Italian waters were actively protected. According to data from the EU Environmental Agency, the figure stands at 6.87 per cent.
Valentina Di Miccoli, a campaigner with Greenpeace, said: “There’s a concrete risk that many areas the government labelled as protected, are in reality what we call paper parks: they exist on paper, but there’s no management, no controls, no conservation objectives and no sanctions.”
Monica Montefalcone, a marine ecologist at the University of Genova, said: “What we’ve seen in the past 30 years is a complete loss of biodiversity in Italian seas. In the marine protected area of Portofino, the seabed was covered with ‘forests’ that became ‘lawns’, because of pollution, and more recently of heat waves.”
Italy’s ministry of the environment and energy transition told IRPI that “the budget for marine protected areas is being carefully considered”.
Italy’s MPAs also face various threats from industry, including plans by the government to step up the transportation of gas in Italian waters, through regasification ships and coastal LNG storage plants, and new port structures for cargo ships and the cruise industry.
The current Italian government, led by Giorgia Meloni of the far-right party, Fratelli d’Italia, created a new ministry for the sea and civil protection, and a three-year “plan for the sea” was adopted in 2023, after a consultation with hundreds of stakeholders.
The document was presented as a first of its kind. It outlined a vision where Italy has to turn into an energy hub or a “logistical platform” for transporting gas, thanks to its position at the core of the Mediterranean.
As part of this project, an IRPI investigation revealed that the plan was heavily influenced by powerful organisations, and people, representing – or close to – industrial fisheries, oil and gas companies, security and defense firms, and shipping logistics.
IRPI also revealed that existing MPAs are increasingly underfunded. Its investigation revealed that funds have been cut by more than half over the past years, from €15.2m in 2021 to €7.2m in 2024.

EU Policies and legal actions
The EU Green Deal, adopted in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, aims for ecosystem restoration.
The 2022 EU biodiversity strategy established goals for marine protection by 2030, in line with the UN Biodiversity Convention (CBD), and says that 30 per cent of marine areas should be protected.
An independent assessment was published in September 2024 by a group of researchers that analysed 4,858 MPAs in the EU.
The group stated that while MPAs covered 11.4 per cent of EU national waters in 2022, just 0.2 per cent were fully or highly protected. As much as 86 per cent of MPA coverage allows industrial activities.
Some civil society organisations across Europe are suing governments over their failure to protect marine areas. In November 2024, Friends of the Earth Germany filed a lawsuit against the German government over bottom trawling in an MPA.
In Scotland, Open Seas took the Scottish Government to court in 2023, arguing that it had failed to act in accordance with the National Marine Plan when making licensing decisions about scallop dredging. A court ruled the government had acted unlawfully.
The Scottish Government appealed but this was rejected by the highest civil court, confirming the court’s original judgement that ministers had acted unlawfully.
Scotland’s Seas in Danger is a year-long investigative series by The Ferret that delves into Scotland’s marine environment. Our investigations were carried out with the support of Journalismfund Europe and in partnership with the Investigative Reporting Project Italy (IRPI).

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All images by Natalia Alana