Draft Fisheries Assessment – Stanton 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 the management options in light of the conservation objectives, biological characteristics of protected features, and current activity levels for Stanton Banks 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 demersal 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 6).

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 Stanton Banks SAC and the proportion of each that would be protected by the zoned management measures. In this case, 99.7% of reef habitat will be protected from mobile demersal fishing.

Demersal mobile fishing occurs in a patchy distribution across the site, including five small areas which are considered not likely to have a significant impact on features due to the predicted distribution of the reef feature in those locations. In the remainder of the site towed gear can damage fragile erect species and recovery can be slow. The zoned option will protect the feature but does not impact existing trawl fisheries.

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 very small areas of potential bedrock and/or stony reef within the site and would be limited to approximately 0.3% of the total reef feature within the site under the zonal measures.

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 hindering the achievement of favourable condition for the reef feature, thus ensuring site integrity in the long term through maintaining or restoring the extent and distribution and structure and function of the qualifying habitat in the site and the supporting processes on which the qualifying habitat relies.

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 hinder the restoration of the reef feature to favourable condition within Stanton Banks Reef, 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 7). No prohibitions would be considered for static demersal gear (including traps/creels), 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 restoration of the reef feature to favourable condition, ensuring site integrity in the long term through maintaining or restoring the extent and distribution and structure and function of the qualifying habitat in the site and the supporting processes on which the qualifying habitat relies.

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 restoration of the reef feature to favourable condition and this management measure would be considered sufficient to avoid an adverse effect on the site integrity of Stanton Banks SAC.

5.3 Management options conclusions

Scottish Ministers consider that adopting no additional management for mobile demersal fishing would pose the risk of adversely affecting the site integrity of Stanton Banks 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 Stanton Banks 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.