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

Executive Summary

The scope of this fisheries assessment is the Darwin Mounds Special Area of Conservation (SAC) located approximately 160 km north-west of Cape Wrath, Scotland, at the north end of the Rockall Trough and varies in depth from 710 meters to 1,129 meters. This site occurs in the offshore region (12-200 nautical miles, nm). 12-200 nautical miles, nm).

The site is designated for Annex I Reef; stony, bedrock and biogenic reef. The conservation objectives for the site are for the feature to be in favourable condition thus ensuring site integrity in the long term and contribution to Favourable conservation status of Annex I Reefs. JNCC conservation statements provide the view that the overall condition of the site’s qualifying feature is in unfavourable condition and therefore needs to be restored to favourable condition.

In Part A, fishing activities currently occurring within the site (data from 2015 – 2019) were screened and grouped into aggregated gear types. Throughout this draft fisheries assessment the data from 2015-2019 is referred to as the current levels of activity. There were no gear types considered relevant to the Annex I Reefs which could be aggregated. Mid-water trawl were the only identifiable gear type occurring within the site. The pressures exerted from this pelagic gear were assessed against the sensitivities of the protected reef feature. Due to the pressures exerted from the gears and the lack of interaction with the seabed, no pressure-feature interactions were identified.

As no fishing activity were identified and assessed as having the potential to have a Likely Significant Effect (LSE) on the protected feature or adverse effect on site integrity, no further assessment (Part B & C) was undertaken.

Considering the management already within the site and no fishing activity being present which could potentially have a significant effect on the protected feature or result in adverse effect on site integrity, Scottish Ministers did not identify any further management options for consideration.

The decision as to any management measures to be taken forward will be made following a statutory public consultation exercise and will be taken in the light of all relevant obligations incumbent upon the Scottish Ministers in relation to the exercise of their functions.