FARNET
Fisheries Areas Network
FLAG Factsheet
--ARCHIVED as of 31 January 2020--
Orkney is made up of 70 islands, 18 of which are inhabited. Orkney is both a rural and island community, and economy, in an extremely peripheral location off the North coast of Scotland, which gives rise to a unique mix of opportunities and challenges. The whole of the Orkney Islands’ are included in the FLAG area.
Fishing is an integral part of the Orkney economy, and in 2012 the local fleet comprised 142 vessels. The vast majority of Orkney fishing vessels were creel fishing boats under 10m in 2012 (65% of fleet), followed by creel fishing vessels ≥10m which comprised 18% of the total fishing fleet. Landings in Orkney are nearly all from locally based boats with shellfish landings up the vast majority.
The FLAG will target groups in the fishing and aquaculture industries, as well as fisheries based communities.
Orkney’s challenges include:
The challenges specific to Orkney’s fisheries sector are the distance from boat to market due to the geographical remoteness and island location, and the associated additional and transport costs with island living. Orkney has no local fish market; the nearest one is located on the mainland at Scrabster in Caithness requiring stock to be shipped across the Pentland Firth incurring additional costs and time.
Orkney has 61 protected areas most of which involve coastline or inland water – the main areas are protecting features such as sea bird colonies, sea bird breeding sites, marine mammals, maritime cliffs, kelp & seaweed, maerl beds, salt marsh, amongst other things. Examples of these are:
|
Area |
Designation |
|
East Sanday Coast |
Special Site of Scientific Interest (SSSI), Ramsar Site, Special Protection Area (SPA) |
|
Hoy |
SSSI, Special Area of Conservation (SAC), SPA, National Scenic Area |
|
Marwick Head |
SSSI, SPA |
|
Wyre & Rousay Sounds |
Nature Conservation MPA |
|
Waulkmill |
SSSI |
|
Loch of Harray |
SSSI |
|
Loch of Stenness |
SSSI, SAC |
|
Mull Head |
Local Nature Reserve |
|
Stromness Heaths & Coast |
SSSI, SPA |
|
West Westray |
SSSI, SPA |
The Orkney FLAG’s overall aim is to increase and strengthen the vitality and sustainability of the fisheries sector and communities.
In order to address the challenges identified, the Orkney FLAG aims to:
National – Scottish Government
Orkney is delivering a joint CLLD LDS between LEADER and EMFF and it is difficult to quantify the level of funding required to deliver the overall strategy. A range of funding sources will be used to help deliver the strategy, with EMFF being just one of these.
These could include:
The Orkney FLAG are intending to meet quarterly and there will be a fast track process for projects seeking less than £10 000.
Deadline dates for applications and FLAG assessment meetings will be published on the FLAG website.
Orkney is a new FLAG area for 2014-2020 and has only had one meeting to date. Cooperation is not something that has been discussed at this stage, but may be in the future.