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UK Offshore Marine Protected Areas

Publisher
Joint Nature Conservation Committee
Updated
14 August 2026
Topic
Not set
Licence
Not set

Summary

This resource contains boundary, site and feature information for designated UK Offshore Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). Offshore MPAs include Marine Conservation Zones (MCZs), Highly Protected Marine Areas (HPMAs), Scottish national MPAs, Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) with marine components and Special Protection Areas (SPAs) with marine components. JNCC is responsible for identifying and providing conservation advice on MPAs in UK offshore waters (beyond 12 nautical miles from the coast). Further information on offshore MPAs is available on our website: https://jncc.gov.uk/our-work/offshore-mpas/ A shapefile and spreadsheet are available for download. The shapefile contains site boundaries and associated site attribute information, including: site code, site name, site status, country, CP2 region, area (hectares), centroid lat/long (decimal degree), established date, lead agency and WDPA code. The spreadsheet provides the same site attribute data as well as information on the sites' protected features (including feature names, feature codes and species population types). Sites that straddle the inshore/offshore (UK Territorial Seas) limit are included in these datasets. For further information please see the shapefile metadata and spreadsheet read-me (within the files).

Data links

Link Format Preview Updated
JNCC ResourceHub Page 14/8/2026

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Additional information

Source Metadata
XML, HTML
Date added
13 August 2026
Harvest GUID
ade43f34-54d6-4084-b66a-64f0b4a5ef27
Extent (Latitude)
63.887067° to 48.166667°
Extent (Longitude)
-19.25° to 3.249861°
Dataset reference date (publication)
2024-12-13
Access constraints
No limitations
Responsible party
Digital and Data Solutions, JNCC (distributor)
ISO 19139 resource type
dataset
Metadata language
eng