Draft Fisheries Assessment – Braemar Pockmarks SAC: Fisheries management measures within Scottish Offshore Marine Protected Areas (MPAs)

4. Part C Assessment- In Combination Assessment

4.1 In combination assessment overview

This section assess the in-combination provision within under Article 6(3) of Council Directive 92/43/EEC of 21 May 1992 on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora (the Habitats Directive) to take account of the cumulative impacts, which may occur over space and time, in relation to plans or projects which are completed, approved but uncompleted, or proposed. Activities assessed in this section include the following:

• Fishing activity/pressure combinations which were excluded in Part A of this assessment as having no likely significant impact;
• Fishing interactions assessed in Part B but not resulting in adverse effects; and
• Plans and projects occurring within Braemar Pockmarks SAC that are not related to fishing.

Fishing activities including demersal trawls have been identified in Part B as requiring management to avoid adverse effects of site integrity and will therefore not be considered in Part C. Demersal seine fishing was not considered to have a potential significant adverse effect on site integrity on its own and is assessed in combination with other plans/projects occurring at the site in Part C.

4.2 Other offshore region activities screening

To determine plans and projects, not related to fishing activities, to be included within this part of the assessment, a distance of 5 km was selected as suitable to capture any potential source receptor pathways that could impact the site in combination with effects of the fishing activities assessed. A 5 km buffer was therefore applied to the site boundary to identify relevant plans and projects.

Plans and projects not related to fishing activities were identified using the Scottish Government's marine mapping tool. The JNCC Conservation Objectives and Advice on Operations, and other resources on the JNCC Site Information Centre for Braemar Pockmarks SAC were also screened for activities occurring in the site that should be considered in the in-combination assessment.

The map to display offshore region activities (see Figure 4) was derived from OceanWise's Marine Themes Vector data (July 2023 version), Crown Estate Scotland leases (September 2023 version), Kingfisher Information Services Offshore Renewable Cable Awareness (KIS-ORCA, as of December 2023 held under licence) and North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA, as of December 2023, data held under Oil and Gas Authority open licence). The Marine Themes "Industrial" was filtered to show offshore region platforms, wellheads, piles, turbines, cables, and pipelines. Features marked as "not in use", "not present", "decommissioned", or "removed" were excluded. The "Administrative" data were filtered to only show military exercise areas which included danger areas.

4.3 Other offshore region activities occurring within Braemar Pockmarks SAC

The screening exercise using the Scottish Government's marine mapping tool did not identify any current cables, pipelines, turbines or piles, operational wellheads, or offshore region platforms within the site (see Figure 4).

According to the Activities and Management section of the JNCC Site Information Centre for Braemar Pockmarks SAC, only one exploration well for oil occurs within the site. As the status of this well is 'decommissioned', it is not considered to pose any in-combination effects. A wellhead of the Braemar Hydrocarbon field and connecting pipelines lie just outside the boundary of the site (Figure 4). There is also one telecommunications cable which runs across the north of the site in an east to west direction. This cable is out of service, so is therefore not considered to pose any in-combination effects.

Table 6 provides a list of these activities, however due to the status of these cables and wells being out of service and complete, these are not considered to pose any in-combination effects. Considering the absence of activities that had the potential for likely significant effects, the assessment did not identify any in-combination activities that could adversely affect the site integrity of Braemar Pockmarks SAC.

Table 6. Plans and projects in Braemar Pockmarks SAC.

4.4 Potential pressures exerted by fishing and other plans or projects

The wellhead in the north of the site is 'complete' and is currently suspended or decommissioned, subsequently it is not considered capable of impacting the Annex I habitat submarine structures made by leaking gases. The telecommunications cable running across the north of the site is out of service, although its presence within the site exposes the Annex I habitat submarine structures made by leaking gases within the site to a low level of physical loss (obstruction), the same pressure is not associated with the fishing activities occurring in the site. Thus the obstruction provided by the inactive telecommunications cable is not considered further as part of the in-combination assessment.

The constructed wellhead and an active connecting pipeline east of the site occur close to the site boundary, however they do not cross the site boundary or overlap with the pockmarks within the site. The active pipeline within 5 km to the east of the site also does not overlap with the site or the Annex I habitat. Subsequently the wellhead and two pipelines occurring outside of the site boundary are not considered capable of impacting the Annex I habitat.

Although the Activities and Management section of the JNCC Site Information Centre for Braemar Pockmarks SAC indicated there is a low density of commercial shipping in this area and the Lerwick to Hanstholm ferry route crosses the south-west corner of the site, vessel anchorage is unlikely due to its offshore location. Thus, the pressures associated with these surface vessel activities are not considered able to impact the Annex I habitat submarine structures made by leaking gases pockmarks.

4.5 Significance of effects/impacts to protected features

None of the other offshore region activities occurring within the Braemar Pockmarks SAC exerted pressures on the submarine structures made by leaking gases pockmarks that would overlap with the pressures exerted by mobile demersal fishing (seines). Accordingly, there were no likely significant effects identified within the in-combination assessment. Considering the absence of likely significant effects, the assessment did not identify any in-combination activities that could adversely affect the site integrity of Braemar Pockmarks SAC.

4.6 Part C Conclusion

Scottish Ministers conclude that the remaining fishing activities (demersal seines) in-combination with other relevant activities will not adversely affect the site integrity of Braemar Pockmarks SAC, at current levels of activity.