Draft Fisheries Assessment – West Shetland Shelf NCMPA: Fisheries management measures within Scottish Offshore Marine Protected Areas (MPAs)

4. Part C Assessment – In-combination assessment

4.1. In-combination assessment overview

Part C of this assessment considers the cumulative impacts, which may occur over space and time, in relation to activities occurring within the MPA. Activities assessed in this section include the following:

• Fishing activity/pressure combinations which were excluded in Part A of this assessment as not being capable of impacting the feature ;
• Fishing interactions assessed in Part B but that would not hinder the conservation objectives for the site; and
• Activities occurring within West Shetland Shelf NCMPA 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 and will therefore not be considered in Part C. It was not considered that static fishing using traps/creels and anchored nets/lines hinders the achievement of the conservation objectives for the site on its own and so it is assessed in combination with other activities occurring at the site in this Part C.

4.2. Other offshore region activities screening

To determine activities 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 activities.

Activities not related to fishing activities were identified using the Scottish Government's marine mapping tool. Resources on the JNCC Site Information Centre for West Shetland Shelf NCMPA, including the JNCC West Shetland Shelf NCMPA: Management Options Paper (2014), 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 Figure 7) 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 within West Shetland Shelf NCMPA

The screening exercise using the Scottish Government's marine mapping tool identified two active communications cables crossing the northern section of the site and three decommissioned exploration oil and gas wells within the site (see Figure 7). A further three decommissioned exploration wells occur within 5 km of the site, two to the north and one to the south. Shipping in various forms also occurs at low levels across the site.

The JNCC West Shetland Shelf NCMPA: Management Options Paper (2014) confirmed the presence of telecommunications cables within the site. The JNCC Site Information Centre for West Shetland Shelf also indicated wrecks have been recorded within the site by the UK Hydrographic Office.

4.4. Potential pressures exerted by fishing and other activities

The active telecommunications cables in the north of the site are in-situ and not exerting the pressures that would be associated with laying, burial and protection or decommissioning. The only pressures associated with the operation and maintenance telecommunications cables (JNCC PAD) that overlap with the pressures exerted by static (trap and anchored nets/lines) fishing (JNCC PAD) and to which the offshore subtidal sands and gravels feature are sensitive (FeAST) are:

• abrasion/disturbance of the substrate on the surface of the seabed;
• collision below water;
• litter;
• introduction of light;
• introduction or spread of invasive non-indigenous species;
• hydrocarbon & PAH contamination;
• Synthetic compound contamination; and
• transition elements & organo-metal (e.g. TBT) contamination.

The only pressure that has a medium-high risk profile for both static demersal fishing (traps/creels and anchored nets/lines) and operation and maintenance of telecommunications cables, and to which the subtidal sands and gravels feature has medium-high sensitivity, is abrasion/disturbance of the substrate on the surface of the seabed. According to JNCC PAD, if either of the active telecommunications cables crossing the site need to be reburied or uncovered for repair, abrasion and physical disturbance will occur. However, the frequency of the activity will be very low.

All other pressures associated with both the operation and maintenance of telecommunications cables and static demersal fishing (traps/creels and anchored nets/lines), to which the offshore subtidal sands and gravels feature is sensitive, had low risk profiles for both activities.

The three-exploration oil and gas wells within the site and the three within 5 km of the site have all been decommissioned and do not exert any of the pressures associated with exploratory drilling, construction, decommissioning, or operation and maintenance. These wells are not considered to exert any pressures on the offshore subtidal sands and gravels feature within the site that would overlap with static demersal fishing (traps/creels and anchored nets/lines) and so are not considered further within the in-combination assessment.

According to the JNCC West Shetland Shelf NCMPA: Management Options Paper (2014) shipping and other vessel activity occurring across the site is not capable of affecting the subtidal sands and gravels feature and so is not considered further as part of the in-combination assessment.

4.5. Significance of effects/impacts to protected features

The only offshore region activities occurring within, or within 5 km, of the West Shetland Shelf NCMPA potentially exerting pressures of concern that could overlap with those exerted by static demersal fishing (traps/creels and anchored nets/lines), and to which the subtidal sands and gravels feature is sensitive, is the operation and maintenance of the two telecommunications cables crossing the north of the site. The pressure of concern for this activity is abrasion/disturbance of the substrate on the surface of the seabed, to which the subtidal sands and gravels feature has medium-high sensitivity.

However, the area over which this pressure could occur within the site is small, with active telecommunications cables only traversing the far north of the site. The frequency of any disturbance from telecommunications cable operation and maintenance activities would be low. Spatial overlap with static demersal fishing (traps/creels and anchored nets/lines) activities would be minimal, with less than 12 fishing hours annually for each activity in that part of the site, according to VMS intensity averaged over 2015 to 2019.

Subsequently, the in-combination effects of the operation and maintenance of the two telecommunications cables within the site and static demersal fishing (traps/creels and anchored nets/lines) at current activity levels are not considered to be hindering the maintenance of favourable condition for the subtidal sands and gravels feature, so that extent is stable or increasing; and structure, function, quality and the composition of characteristic biological communities are such as to ensure they remain in a condition which is healthy and not deteriorating within West Shetland Shelf NCMPA.

4.6. Part C Conclusion

Scottish Ministers conclude that the remaining fishing activities (demersal static gear: traps/creels and anchored nets/lines) at current activity levels in-combination with other relevant activities will not hinder the achievement of the conservation objectives for the West Shetland Shelf NCMPA.