Scottish Salmon Fishery District Boundaries for Catch Reporting and Stock Assessment

Salmon Fishery District boundaries are used by Scottish Government Marine Scotland for reporting annual salmon catch statistics and stock assessments. The boundaries were interpreted from 1862-1868 Acts and are based on SEPA river catchments and licensed CEH 1:50,000 data, with updates made in 2019. This layer is derived from a licensed dataset and is not routinely downloadable; sharing requires proof of a CEH license for the underlying Digital Terrain Model.

Use Cases

• Mapping salmon fishery administrative units for regulatory reporting based on the described district boundaries.
• Analyzing spatial relationships between catch statistics and river catchments based on the SEPA and CEH data sources mentioned.
• Supporting stock assessment models under the Salmon Conservation (Scotland) Regulations using the defined district geography.

Strengths

• Boundaries are legally defined, interpreted from the Salmon Fisheries (Scotland) Acts 1862 - 1868.
• Data integration from authoritative sources: Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) river catchments and licensed Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH) 1:50,000 data.
• Boundaries and attributes were updated in 2019, providing a known reference point for data currency.

Limitations

• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after access.
• Access is restricted; the layer is not downloadable and requires a specific CEH license for sharing.

Provenance

Source

Scottish Government Marine Scotland, derived from licensed Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH) data.

Collection Method

Boundaries interpreted from historical legislation and based on SEPA river catchments and CEH 1:50,000 data.

Time Range

Boundaries reflect historical Acts from 1862-1868, with updates applied in 2019.

Freshness

Boundaries were updated in 2019; last update date for the platform record is unknown.

Geography

Scotland, specifically areas covered by salmon fishery districts.