Draft Fisheries Assessment – Pobie Bank Reef 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 Pobie Bank Reef 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 gear (demersal trawls and seines). 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. This would involve:

• Near full site exclusion of demersal mobile gear (Figure 7).

There would be no zoned management measures for demersal static gear (anchored nets/lines), as the need for additional management for this fishing type was not identified during the assessment.

Table 6 provides details of the reef subtypes present within the Pobie Bank Reef SAC and the proportion of each that would be protected by the zoned management measures. In this case, 99% of reef habitat would be protected from mobile demersal fishing.

This zoned management option would therefore remove/avoid the majority of pressures from demersal mobile gear by excluding demersal mobile gear from almost all of the reef habitat within the site. The potential exposure to demersal mobile gear would be restricted to a patch of reef feature in the far northeast of the site and would be limited to approximately 1% of the total reef feature within the site under the zonal measures.

It is likely that bottom trawlers avoid the hard substrate to prevent damage to their gear, however according to the NatureScot and JNCC Conservation Objectives and Advice on Operations the best available evidence (as at 2013) was not of sufficient spatial resolution to confirm this.

Considering the very small spatial extent for potential fishing activity with demersal seines and trawls within the site under the zoned management, these remaining activities were not assessed as affecting the maintenance or restoration of the reef feature, such that the natural environmental quality and processes supporting the habitat, the extent of the habitat on site, and the physical structure, community structure, function, diversity and distribution of the habitat and typical species representative of the reef in the Northern North Sea regional sea are maintained or restored, thereby ensuring the integrity of the site. This aligns with JNCC advice that this zoned option would not pose a risk to the maintenance of the long term extent and distribution of the Annex I Reef features (JNCC 2023).

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.

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 the zoned management measures will not affect the maintenance or restoration of the reef feature in/to favourable condition within Pobie Bank Reef SAC, and the zoned management measures are sufficient to avoid an adverse effect on site integrity.

5.2.3 Full site exclusion

Full site exclusion would remove/avoid all pressures associated with fishing activities using mobile demersal gear through prohibiting the use of demersal mobile gears (including trawls and seines) across the whole site (Figure 8). No prohibitions would be considered for static demersal gear (including anchored nets/lines), as the need for additional management for this fishing type was not identified during the assessment.

Removing all pressures associated with demersal mobile gears would support the maintenance or restoration of the reef feature in/to favourable condition, such that the natural environmental quality and processes supporting the habitat, the extent of the habitat on site, and the physical structure, community structure, function, diversity and distribution of the habitat and typical species representative of the reef in the Northern North Sea regional sea are maintained or restored, thereby ensuring the integrity of the site.

Full site exclusion of mobile 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 full site exclusion would support the maintenance or restoration of the reef feature in/to favourable condition and this management measure would be considered sufficient to avoid an adverse effect on the site integrity of Pobie Bank Reef SAC.

5.3 Management options conclusions

Scottish Ministers consider that adopting no additional management measures for mobile demersal fishing would pose the risk of adversely affecting the site integrity of Pobie Bank Reef SAC.

Scottish Ministers consider that both the zoned management measures and the full site exclusion option for mobile demersal fishing outlined above would be sufficient to avoid an adverse effect on site integrity. At current activity levels, fishing using static demersal gear (anchored nets/lines) is not considered to pose a risk to the site integrity of Pobie Bank Reef SAC, and no additional management is currently required for this activity.

The decision on which management option 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 under consideration are invited.