Changing distribution of the east coast of Scotland bottlenose dolphin population and the challenges of area-based management

MAC received funding from the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) (now Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy) UK, and the MASTS (Marine Alliance for Science and Technology for Scotland) pooling initiative. MASTS is funded by the Scottish Funding Council (grant reference HR09011) and contributing institutions. Annual surveys were funded by DECC, Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), Beatrice Offshore Windfarm Ltd., Moray Offshore Renewables Ltd, Marine Scotland, The Crown Estate, Highlands and Islands Enterprise and the Universities of St Andrews and Aberdeen. All fieldwork was carried out under SNH Animal Scientific Licences to PMT and PSH. The authors have no conflict of interest to declare. We thank John Baxter for helpful discussions about the implications for conservation and management while drafting this manuscript, and Morven Carruthers for her advice on the site condition monitoring for the Moray Firth SAC. This manuscript benefited from the helpful comments of two anonymous reviewers.