- 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.
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