Seas around Shetland

Shetlopedia - The Shetland Encyclopaedia

Seas and sea areas around Shetland

Seas and Sea Areas

Shetland is just sitting on the borderline between the North Atlantic Ocean to the West and the North Sea to the East with the Norwegian Sea a few miles to the North of Shetland.

This borderline is defined in the following way ^[1] :

On the Northwest:
From Dunnet Head (3°22' W) in Scotland to Tor Ness (58°47' N) in the island of Hoy, thence through this island to the Kame of Hoy (58°55' N) on to Breck Ness on Mainland (58°58' N) through this island to Costa Head ((3°14' W) on to Inga Ness (59°17' N) in Westray through Westray to Bow Head, across to Mull Head (North point of Papa Westray) and on to Seal Skerry (North point of North Ronaldsay – so far all in Orkney) and hence to Horse Island (South point of the Shetland Islands).

On the North:
From the North point, (Point of Fethaland), on the Mainland of the Shetland Islands; across to Graveland Ness in the island of Yell, through Yell to Gloup Ness (1°04' W) and across to Spoo Ness (60°45' N) in Unst Island, through Unst to Herma Ness (60°51' N), on to the SW point of the Rumblings and on to Muckle Flugga (60°51' N. 0°53' W) all these being included in the North Sea area; thence up the meridian of 0°53' W to the parallel of 61°00' North and eastward along this parallel to the coast of Norway, the whole of Viking Bank being thus included in the North Sea.

With regard to shipping forecasts and gale warnings issued by the UK Met Office the waters immediately around Shetland are refered to as the Fair Isle sea area, with the neighbouring sea areas Viking and Cromarty to the East and Southeast, Faeroes and Hebrides to the West and Southwest.

Straits and Channels

Around Fair Isle we have the North Fair Isle Strait and the South Fair Isle Strait both sometimes also refered to as the Fair Isle Channels. The northern Strait is 20 miles wide. About one half of it is an area to be avoided. The southern Strait is about 22 miles wide. Both the Straits are important shipping routes with some 1400 laden tankers using the Straits each year. Some 30% of the traffic is connected with Sullom Voe OT.

Total ship movements in the Straits average about 10 per day. This less than 5% of the traffic density in the Dover Strait the main southern route from and to the North Sea. A Traffic Separation Scheme to control the routeing of all shipping using the Fair Isle Straits is under discussion. As one lesson learned from the Braer Disaster all laden tankers using the Straits should keep to the middle of the channels and report their movements to Lerwick Coastguard.

The South Fair Isle Channel is in hydrographical terms also refered to as the Fair Isle Current. It is one of the important currents for the influx of Atlantic salt water into the North Sea but less important than the inflow along the western slope of the Norwegian Trench.

To the west off Shetland and about half way on the route to Faeroe we have the Faeroes Shetland Channel. Through this channel salty water from the North Atlantic is flowing into the less salty Norwegian Sea thus providing good fishing grounds.