Draft Fisheries Assessment – West of Scotland NCMPA: 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 West of Scotland NCMPA.

5.2 Assessment of management options

5.2.1 No additional management

The assessment identified that management measures would be required to avoid hindering the achievement of the conservation objectives for the site from mobile demersal gear (demersal trawls and demersal seines) and anchored nets/lines. Thus the option of no management is not considered further.

5.2.2 Zoned management

Scottish Ministers have assessed the available evidence regarding the impact of demersal mobile gears and anchored nets/lines on the protected features, the JNCC Conservation and Management Advice for the site and the JNCC Fisheries Management Options Paper. One management option of full site exclusion, has been identified as suitable for the protected features to further the conservation objectives for West of Scotland NCMPA. Thus, the option of zoned management is not considered further.

5.2.3 Full site exclusion

Full site exclusion would remove/avoid all pressures associated with fishing activities using demersal gears (including mobile and static) across the whole site throughout the year (Figure 7). No prohibition would be considered for pelagic fishing gear, as the need for additional management for this fishing type was not identified during the assessment.

Removing all pressures associated with demersal mobile and static gears across the whole site would support the recovery of Burrowed mud, Coral gardens, Cold-water coral reefs, Deep-sea sponge aggregations, Offshore deep-sea muds, Offshore sands and gravels and Seamount communities to favourable condition such that their extent is stable or increasing and their structures and functions, quality, and the composition of their characteristic biological communities are such as to ensure that they are in a condition which is healthy and not deteriorating. In addition, it would aid the conservation of Blue Ling and recover the Leafscale Gulper shark, Gulper shark, Orange roughy, Portuguese dogfish and Round-nose grenadier to favourable condition, such that the population is maintained in numbers which enable it to thrive.

The full exclusion would remove the impact of demersal trawls, demersal seines and anchored nets/lines from all areas of the site and is most likely to contribute to furthering the conservation objectives of the site and give a higher probability of restoring the Offshore sands and gravels, Burrowed mud, offshore deep-sea muds, Leafscale gulper shark, Gulper shark, Portuguese dogfish, Roundnose grenadier and Orange roughy features to favourable condition, and maintaining the Blue ling feature in favourable condition.

Full site year-round exclusion of demersal mobile and static gear would contribute to 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 not hinder the achievement of the conservation objectives for the West of Scotland NCMPA, rather it would further those objectives.

5.3 Management options conclusion

Scottish Ministers consider that adopting no additional management measures and zoned management measures for mobile demersal fishing (including demersal trawls and demersal seines) and demersal static fishing (anchored nets/lines) would, or might, hinder the achievement of the conservation objectives for West of Scotland NCMPA. Scottish Ministers consider that the full site exclusion option for demersal mobile and static fishing, outlined above, would further the conservation objectives for the site.

At current activity levels, fishing using pelagic gears is not considered to pose a risk to achieving the conservation objectives, 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.