The dataset contains transcripts of semi-structured interviews conducted in each of the case study area of the project with sea-users, conservation bodies and regulators and also elite interviews with regulators and Statutory Nature Conservation bodies in England and Scotland.This socio-legal project focused on the on-going efforts to establish an ecologically coherent network of marine protected areas (MPAs) as required under the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009 (MCAA) and Marine (Scotland) Act 2010. The network comprises MPAs of international, European and national importance, including new marine conservation zones established under the MCAA and new nature conservation MPAs under the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010 The project was aimed at capturing the key social and ecological dimensions of marine conservation law at this turning point by: 1) critically assessing designation and management strategies contributing to the creation of the network and 2) by loooking at the impacts of marine conservation law on the identities and roles of sea users and other stakeholders. The project has contributed to the academic literature in this area and enabled awareness raising with stakeholders. Methodologically, desk-based analysis of marine conservation law complemented fieldwork in two case study areas in England and one in Scoltand to compare different realities. In each case study area, primary research, predominantly in the form of semi-structured interviews has been conducted with sea users (esp. fishermen), conservation bodies and regulators. The strategies for disseminating research findings have included peer-reviewed publications, presentation at academic conferences, a website, stakeholder workshops and a final symposium organised in Sept 2015 at the University of Bristol bringing together both the academics and the policy community.

Semi-structured interviews & Video with stakeholders; More specifically interviews were conducted in the South-East in 2013-2014, in the Isles of Scilly in 2014 and in South-West Scotland in 2014. Elite interview with national representatives were carried out in 2015. All interviews were conducted by Margherita Pieraccini, except those for the Scottish case study conducted by Emma Cardwell (research asssistant for the project, who was also present when conducting the 2014 interviews in the South-East). The dataset also contain the ethics consent standard form that interviewees were asked to sign, the form given to them regarding the information on the project and also the standard questionnaires (adapted during the interviews as they were semi-structured interviews). Clearly, the data set contains only those interviews of stakeholders who gave their consent for the interviews to be shared. Also, the dataset contains a short film created in 2013 with the help of filmaker Sam Mansfield with the voices of the fishermen in relation to the designation of Marine Conservation Zones. Other information can be found on the project website so it is already available to the public: http://www.ecologiesandidentities.com/