Draft Fisheries Assessment – Solan Bank Reef 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 Solan Bank Reef SAC that are not related to fishing.

Fishing activities including demersal trawls, demersal seines, and boat dredges have been identified in Part B as requiring management to avoid adverse effects to site integrity and will therefore not be considered in Part C. Static fishing using traps was not considered to have an adverse effect on site integrity on its own and is assessed in combination with other plans or projects occurring at the site in Part C. Although pelagic fishing was shown to occur in the site, as in Part A, pelagic mid-water trawl fishing has been classified as not relevant to the protected features within the site as the activity and feature do not interact. Therefore, there is no potential for in-combination effects.

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 NatureScot and JNCC Conservation Objectives and Advice on Operations, and other resources on the JNCC Site Information Centre for Solan Bank Reef 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 Fig. 6) 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 with Solan Bank Reef SAC

The screening exercise using the Scottish Government’s marine mapping tool did not identify any current cables, pipelines, turbines or piles, wellheads, or offshore region platforms within the site (see Fig. 6). There is an offshore region wind lease approximately 5 km southwest of the site but this does not intersect with the site and no offshore region wind infrastructure is currently located within the proximal part of the lease area. A military danger area overlaps with the southeast corner of the site.

The Solan Bank Reef SAC Selection Assessment Document (2012) confirmed that oil and gas exploration is not operating in the region of Solan Bank Reef, and no cables or pipelines run in the vicinity of the site. According to the NatureScot and JNCC Conservation Objectives and Advice on Operations for the site, there is a wreck of an unknown craft within the site boundary. The JNCC Site Information Centre for Solan Bank Reef SAC indicates there is low density of commercial shipping in the area; however due to its offshore region location, high-energy and occasionally shallow environment, vessel anchorage is unlikely within the site.

4.4 Potential pressures exerted by fishing and other plans or projects

The offshore region wind lease approximately 5 km southwest of the site does not intersect with the site and no offshore region wind infrastructure is currently located within the proximal part of the lease area. Subsequently there is no spatial overlap with or proximity to the reef feature within the site, and offshore region wind activities are not considered capable of impacting the reef feature within the site.

According to the NatureScot and JNCC Conservation Objectives and Advice on Operations for the site, the Solan Bank Reef SAC was assessed as exposed to a low level of physical loss (obstruction) from historic wrecks. Although there is a wreck of an unknown craft within the site boundary, which is considered to provide very low levels of obstruction, the same pressure is not associated with the fishing activities occurring in the site. Thus the obstruction provided by the wreck is not considered further as part of the in-combination assessment.

Although the JNCC Site Information Centre for Solan Bank Reef SAC indicates there is low density of commercial shipping in the area, vessel anchorage is unlikely; thus the pressures associated with shipping activity within Solan Bank Reef SAC are not considered likely to impact the reef feature within the site.

The military danger area that overlaps with the southeast corner of the site is a surface danger area / firing danger area and was not considered able to impact the seafloor reef feature.

4.5 Significance of effects/impacts to protected features

None of the other offshore region activities occurring within the Solan Bank Reef SAC exerted pressures on the reef feature that would overlap with the pressures exerted by static demersal fishing (traps). 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 Solan Bank Reef SAC.

4.6 Part C Conclusion

Scottish Ministers conclude that the remaining fishing activities (demersal static gear: traps) in-combination with other relevant activities are compatible with the conservation objectives of the site and will not adversely affect the site integrity of Solan Bank Reef SAC, at current levels of activity.