Draft Fisheries Assessment – North West Rockall Bank SAC: Fisheries management measures within Scottish Offshore Marine Protected Areas (MPAs)

5. Management options

5.1 Overview of management options

Management measures are being considered by Scottish Ministers 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 Rockall Bank SAC.

5.2 Assessment of management options

5.2.1 No additional management

The assessment identified that management measures would be required to avoid adverse effects on site integrity from mobile demersal trawls. Thus the option of no management is not considered further.

5.2.2 Zoned management

Zoned fisheries management measures would be introduced to reduce/limit pressures, whereby a proportion of the site would be subject to prohibitions on static and mobile demersal gears. This would involve:

• 95% of North West Rockall Bank SAC would be protected from demersal gear (mobile and static), thereby reducing the risk of not achieving the conservation objectives for the site, Figure 6.

The areas remaining open to demersal static and mobile gears some very small areas of known reef and include some areas where the distribution of reef is unknown or uncertain. There would therefore be a low risk of small-scale localised impact to the structure and function of reef communities in these areas. It is likely that bottom trawlers avoid the hard substrate to prevent damage to their gear, however it is not possible to confirm this with the available spatial resolution of fishing activity for the North West Rockall Bank SAC.

Potential exposure to demersal static and mobile gear would only occur in limited parts of the site. Considering the small spatial extent of potential fishing activity, these activities were not assessed as affecting the conservation objective.

The zoned management approach would contribute to avoiding the broader decline of reef features and retaining the ecological coherence of both the Scottish MPA Network and the broader OSPAR MPA Network.

Scottish Ministers has assessed the available evidence regarding the impact of demersal mobile and static gears on the Annex I reef feature and the JNCC conservation advice package, and considered all of this information in light of the European Commission guidance.

Given the available evidence, the Scottish Ministers consider the zoned management measures will enable progress to be made towards meeting the conservation objectives for the North West Rockall Bank SAC and the zoned management measures are considered sufficient to avoid an adverse effect on site integrity.

However, considering the distribution of the Annex I reef feature and the relatively coarse resolution of the available fishing activity data, under this option the Scottish Ministers would consider an enhanced activities monitoring plan for this site. In line with JNCC advice (JNCC, 2016), if monitoring showed evidence of detrimental effects as a result of the permitted mobile demersal gear or static demersal gear in the future, additional management may need to be considered.

5.2.3 Full site exclusion

Full site exclusion would remove/avoid all pressures associated with fishing activities using mobile and static demersal gear through prohibiting the use of demersal mobile and static gears across the whole site (Figure 7).

This option would reduce the risk of not achieving the conservation objectives for the reef feature within the site boundary to the lowest possible levels increasing the likelihood of maintaining or restoring the reef feature to favourable condition. This option would avoid the risk of an adverse effect on site integrity from fishing activities using demersal mobile and static gears.

Full site year-round exclusion of mobile and static demersal gear would contribute to avoiding the broader decline of reef features and retaining the ecological coherence of both the Scottish MPA Network and the broader OSPAR MPA Network.

Given the available evidence, Scottish Ministers consider that a full site exclusion would enable progress to be made towards meeting the conservation objectives for the North West Rockall Bank SAC and this management measure would be considered sufficient to avoid an adverse effect on site integrity.

5.3 Management options conclusion

Scottish Ministers consider that adopting no additional management measures for mobile and static demersal fishing would pose the risk of adversely affecting the site integrity of North West Rockall Bank SAC.

Scottish Ministers considers that both the zoned management measures and the full site exclusion option for mobile and static demersal fishing outlined above would be sufficient to avoid an adverse effect on site integrity.

The decision on which management options is 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 are under consideration are invited.