Marine_Scotland_FishDAC_12586 eng dataset Scottish Government (Marine Scotland) +44 (0)300 244 4000 marinescotland@gov.scot pointOfContact 2026-08-20 MEDIN Discovery Metadata Version 2.3.7 urn:ogc:def:crs:EPSG::4326 OGP FishDAC - Scallop Survey (Scotland) 2025 - East coast 2025-09-01 publication Marine_Scotland_FishDAC_12586 Scallop survey of the east coast of Scotland Objectives 1. To carry out a survey of scallop stocks on the East coast of Scotland. 2. To age, measure and assess shell damage on all scallops caught. 3. To collect information on by-catch of other commercial fish and shellfish species. 4. To identify and quantify numbers of starfish species in all dredge tows 5. To record and retain marine litter obtained during the dredging process (monitoring for Marine Strategy Framework Directive). 6. To collect whole scallops for heavy metal testing as part of the OSPAR assessment of hazardous substances in the marine environment 7. To collect King scallps showing any shell deformities 8. To collect scallop shells to form part of a reference and training set for Scotland. Scottish Government (Marine Scotland) +44 (0)300 244 4000 Mailpoint 11, Area 1B South, Victoria Quay Edinburgh EH6 6QQ United Kingdom marinescotland@gov.scot pointOfContact Scottish Government (Marine Scotland) +44 (0)300 244 4000 Mailpoint 11, Area 1B South, Victoria Quay Edinburgh EH6 6QQ United Kingdom marinescotland@gov.scot custodian Scottish Government (Marine Scotland) +44 (0)300 244 4000 Mailpoint 11, Area 1B South, Victoria Quay Edinburgh EH6 6QQ United Kingdom marinescotland@gov.scot distributor Marine Scotland 375 Victoria Road Aberdeen AB119DB United Kingdom Shona.kinnear@gov.scot originator Not Planned Marine Environmental Data and Information Network Fish and shellfish catch statistics Fishing by-catch Shellfish abundance and biomass in water bodies SeaDataNet Parameter Discovery Vocabulary 2018-12-12 revision Habitats and biotopes Species distribution GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0 2009-07-31 revision Contains information from the Scottish Government (Marine Scotland) licenced under the Open Government Licence otherRestrictions no limitations to public access 200.00 eng biota oceans -4 0 56 59 ICES Rectangles 1910-01-01 creation 45E8 ICES Rectangles 1910-01-01 creation 44E8 ICES Rectangles 1910-01-01 creation 43E8 ICES Rectangles 1910-01-01 creation 42E8 ICES Rectangles 1910-01-01 creation 41E8 ICES Rectangles 1910-01-01 creation 46E7 ICES Rectangles 1910-01-01 creation 45E7 ICES Rectangles 1910-01-01 creation 44E7 ICES Rectangles 1910-01-01 creation 42E7 ICES Rectangles 1910-01-01 creation 41E7 ICES Rectangles 1910-01-01 creation 45E6 ICES Rectangles 1910-01-01 creation 44E6 ICES Rectangles 1910-01-01 creation 43E9 SeaDataNet vertical extent keywords 2010-01-01 revision The water column that is significantly influenced by the seabed, which is broader in deep ocean than in shelf seas. Guideline approximation is bottom 10m of oceans and bottom 5% of shelf (<200m) seas. 2025-07-12 2025-08-01 na offlineAccess bodc offlineAccess dataset Dredge surveys of the major scallop grounds around Scotland have been carried out annually by Marine Directorate since the mid-1990’s. These surveys typically cover Shetland, the East coast and West coast of Scotland with the Clyde being added to the survey programme in 2019. The primary survey objective is to collect data for the provision of a catch at age index for use in the scallop regional stock assessments carried out by Marine Directorate. Method The scallop surveys have a fixed station design. The station locations were originally determined with reference to British Geological Survey charts to locate sediments suitable for scallops and also using knowledge of the fishing grounds contributed by skippers fishing at the time when the surveys first took place. There are around 120 fixed stations which have been historically fished on the East coast, however, these are kept under review and not all are surveyed every year due to time constraints, bad weather, renewable energy activity, and closed areas. A typical East coast scallop survey of this duration with favourable weather conditions would aim to survey between 90 to 100 of the stations. Two dredge arrays are fished (one either side of the vessel). One array consists of standard commercial spring-loaded Newhaven type dredges (2.5’ wide, nine tooth bar, with 80 mm internal diameter belly rings, Type A, referred to as S9 fished from the starboard side). The second array consists of smaller configuration sampling dredges with 11 teeth and smaller diameter belly rings (Type B), more similar to commercial gear for queen scallops (Aequipecten opercularis) (2.5’ wide, 11 tooth bar, with 60 mm internal diameter belly rings, referred as P11 fished from the port side). This side of gear is configured to catch smaller scallops compared to the commercial dredges. At each station the dredges are towed at a speed of about 2.5 knots for approximately 30 minutes with both sides of dredges on the seabed. All king scallops caught are aged and measured (length to the 0.5 cm below) in accordance with the Marine Directorate scallop aging standard operating procedure and damage assessed in accordance with the damage index¬¬ (Veale et al., 2001). The total width of dredges used in the survey has changed over the survey time series. Catch rate data are therefore further standardised and expressed as numbers caught per hour per metre dredge width (N hr-1 m-1). Bycatch, including starfish, are collected, identified, measured, sexed and damage assessed, with the same damage index referenced for the scallops, where appropriate. Any additional requests are also carried out if there is scope to do so. For this survey, we were requested to record any scallops which appeared misshapen or deformed.