Background
Section 117 of the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010 (the Act) provides for Scottish Ministers, after consulting the Natural Environment Research Council ( NERC), to designate haul-out sites, which are considered suitable to protect seals from harassment, through an order in the Scottish Parliament. A haul-out site is a location on land where seals haul themselves out to rest.
The Sea Mammal Research Unit ( SMRU), acting on behalf of NERC, has therefore made use of its extensive database on seals to compile a list of haul-out sites for both grey seals and common or harbour seals for consideration as potential sites for designation as haul-out sites under the Act. The aim was to list those areas along the coasts of the Scottish mainland and islands likely to contain the highest concentrations of grey and common seals. Information about the detailed scientific methodology involved is available from SMRU at cdm21@st-andrews.ac.uk .
This site selection process sought to focus on those haul-out sites that offered an optimum balance between maximising protection for the largest number of seals while minimising possible impacts on other sustainable activities around the coast.
It therefore excluded the additional large numbers of smaller haul-out sites that contained fewer seals.
This initial list was reviewed by Marine Scotland, Sea Mammal Research Unit, Scottish Natural Heritage and Marine Scotland Science at a meeting held at SMRU on 2 March 2010 and the list of potential haul-out sites contained in this consultation paper was the result of this meeting.