Draft Fisheries Assessment – North-West Orkney NCMPA: Fisheries management measures within Scottish Offshore Marine Protected Areas (MPAs)

5. Management Options

5.1 Overview of management options

Management measures being considered by Scottish Ministers for offshore NCMPAs and any decision as to which measures ought to be taken forward will follow upon a statutory public consultation exercise. Any such decision will also be taken in line with the Scottish Ministers obligations in relation to the exercise of their functions.

The socioeconomic impacts and costs of each management option (no additional management, zoned management, and full site exclusion) have been assessed within the Socio-Economic Impact Assessment (SEIA) and Sustainability Appraisal (SA) and are not discussed within this fisheries assessment. Nor are other considerations, statutory and non-statutory, which the Scottish Ministers may be required to take into account when assessing whether the imposition of a particular measure is appropriate.

This section assesses the suitability of the management options solely in light of the conservation objectives, biological characteristics of protected features, and current activity levels for North-west Orkney NCMPA.

For further details of the development of the fisheries management measures please see section 4 of the methodology report or the consultation document and site summary document found within the consultation package.

5.2 Assessment of management options

5.2.1 No additional management

This assessment has concluded that no fishing activity currently operating within the site would hinder the achievement of the conservation objectives for the site. This is in line with JNCC and NatureScot advice that activities currently taking place are not considered to impact sandeel within this MPA.

Furthermore, as outlined in 1.2, regular larval surveys took place within this NCMPA between 1950s and 2005, indicating that persistent numbers of sandeel larvae are exported from this NCMPA and accordingly JNCC consider sandeel to be in favourable condition within this MPA.

JNCC consider sandeel to be in favourable condition within this MPA. JNCC consider that in the absence of a targeted sandeel fishery, no additional management of fishing activity is necessary to achieve the conservation objective for the sandeel feature for North-West Orkney NCMPA (Figure 8).

The Scottish Government has prohibited fishing for sandeel in all Scottish waters. The Sandeel (Prohibition of Fishing) (Scotland) Order 2024 came into force on 26 March 2024 ahead of the 2024 fishery season and will apply to all vessels (UK and EU) fishing within Scottish waters.

Having considered the conservation and fisheries management advice from the statutory nature conservation bodies, and the wider evidence contained within this assessment, Scottish Ministers consider that implementing no further management would not hinder the achievement of the conservation objectives for North-west Orkney NCMPA.

5.3 Management options conclusion

As there are no fishing activities currently operating within the site considered to hinder the achievement of the conservation objectives for North West Orkney NCMPA, Scottish Ministers consider that the current sandeel fishery closure within Scottish waters suitably restricts fishing activity and conclude that that no additional fisheries management is required.

The decision on any management option to be taken forward will be taken in the light of all relevant duties incumbent upon the Scottish Ministers in relation to the exercise of their functions and following upon a statutory public consultation exercise in which views on the options under consideration are invited.