6 days ago
New legal protections to preserve WWI shipwrecks
New legal protections have been granted to the largest concentration of wrecked warships off the British coast at Scapa Flow, Orkney.
This designation creates a Historic Marine Protected Area (MPA) for the site, which includes seven German High Seas fleet battleships scuttled in 1919 and over 90 other vessels.
A second Historic MPA was also announced for the Queen of Sweden, an 18th-century Swedish East India Company ship that sank off the coast of Shetland.
The new MPA status makes it an offence to remove anything from these wrecks, aiming to preserve what remains of several First World War vessels for future generations.
The Scottish government announced these protections to safeguard nationally significant underwater heritage sites, which are popular with divers and contribute to local economies.
