Call for more protection as study highlights threat to Scotland's seas

FRESH demands for greater protection of Scotland's seas were made last night, after it emerged the North Sea is one of the world's waters most threatened by human activity.

A global map highlighting the scale of 17 causes of harm to the world's oceans graphically illustrates how the oil-rich area is one of the world's worst "hot spots".

Experts in the United States produced the map based on estimates for the combined impact of fishing, pollution and oil exploration. Previous research and data on human damage to marine ecosystems was fed into the new study, published last night by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

The study examined the estimated impact of human activity on coral reefs, seagrass beds and rocky reefs around the planet.

Experts said they hoped the findings would be a "wake-up call" for governments around the world and lead to better management and protection of seas and oceans.

Major areas of concern in Scotland have been the damage to important seabed habitats from dredging, maintaining fish stocks at sustainable levels and mass breeding failures in seabird colonies.

The extent of oil and gas exploration in the North Sea, and levels of fishing and shipping, are being blamed for the area being deemed one of the worst in the world for human activity, along with the English Channel, the eastern coast of North America and the Caribbean Sea.

Research leader Dr Ben Halpern, from the National Centre for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis at the University of California, said: "This allows us to start to see how humans are affecting the oceans. Our results show that when these and other individual impacts are summed up, the big picture looks much worse than I imagine most people expected."

Campaigners have been lobbying for greater protection for the UK's "over-exploited" seas, demanding new marine legislation ensures policies take account of the overall impact of the level of off-shore activity.

The Scotsman's Save Our Seas campaign – which calls for a comprehensive system of marine planning and a network of marine reserves to be established – has highlighted how our waters contain some of the most precious marine environments in the world, but are almost completely unprotected from human exploitation.

The value of Scotland's "ecosystem services" – food production and the flows of nutrients, material and energy – has been estimated at 14 billion. Some 370 million worth of fish was landed by Scottish boats in 2006.

Melissa Moore, senior policy officer with the Marine Conservation Society, said: "This map reiterates that UK seas are in a shocking state of degradation. Urgent action must be taken to achieve a more effective balance between use and protection."

A spokesman for Greenpeace UK said: "The problems affecting the world's oceans need some radical responses. Only by setting aside large areas off-limits to destructive activities like fishing can we hope to protect ocean habitats, and allow areas and species to recover and thrive."