Draft Fisheries Assessment – Solan 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 out 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 measures is appropriate.

This section assesses the suitability of management options solely in light of the conservation objectives, biological characteristics of protected features, and current activity levels for Solan 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, demersal seines, and boat dredges). 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 is would involve:

• Temporal and spatial measures apply to the site with the full site closed to all demersal mobile gears except in September and October where demersal trawls and seines will be permitted to fish a designated zone as shown in Figure 7.

There would be no zoned management measures for demersal static gear (including traps/creels), 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 Solan Bank Reef SAC and the proportion of each that would be protected by the zoned management measures. In this case, 100% of reef habitat will be protected from mobile demersal fishing for ten months of the year. In the other two months (September and October) 65.8% of bedrock reef and 26.5% of stony reef will be potentially exposed to fishing pressure from demersal trawls and seines. This exposure equates to 8.1% of the total reef resource.

This zoned management option would therefore remove/avoid pressures from some demersal mobile gear (boat dredges) across the whole site, and reduce/limit pressures from other demersal gear (demersal trawls and seines), which would only be permitted to operate in specified areas of the site in September and October. This approach would exclude demersal mobile gear from the main areas of bedrock and stony reef sub-types, whilst allowing fishing to continue in fishable areas between the features for some of the year.

It is possible that these fishable areas may include some areas where the distribution of reef is unknown or uncertain, and some very small areas of known reef. There would therefore be a very 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 according to the NatureScot and JNCC Conservation Objectives and Advice on Operations the best available evidence (as at 2012) was not of sufficient spatial resolution to confirm this.

Considering the small spatial extent of potential fishing activities with demersal seines and trawls, and the limited time over which these may occur, these 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 Solan Bank Reef SAC, and the zoned management measures are sufficient to avoid an adverse effect on site integrity.

Considering the patchy distribution of the Annex I reef feature and the relatively coarse resolution of the available fishing activity data, under the zoned management approach Scottish Ministers may consider an enhanced activities monitoring plan for this site.

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, seines, and dredges) across the whole site throughout the year (Figure 8). No prohibitions would be considered for any static demersal gear (including traps), 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 year-round 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 Solan 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 Solan Bank Reef SAC. Scottish Ministers consider that both the zoned management measures and the full site exclusion option for mobile demersal fishing would be sufficient to avoid an adverse effect on site integrity. At current activity levels, fishing using static demersal gear (traps/creels) is not considered to pose a risk to the site integrity of Solan 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 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.