Draft Fisheries Assessment – West Shetland Shelf 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 Shetland Shelf NCMPA.

For further details of the development of fisheries management measures please see section 4 of the methodology report, consultation document and site summary document.

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 from mobile demersal gear (trawls, seines, and boat dredges) for the site. Therefore 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:

• Dredges and beam trawls to be prohibited from the entire site
• All demersal mobile gear to be prohibited from two areas, together encompassing 50% of the site (Figure 8).

There would be no zoned management measures for demersal static gear (traps/creels and anchored nets/lines), as the need for additional management for this fishing type was not identified during the assessment.

This zoned management option would therefore remove/avoid the pressures associated with boat dredges and beam trawls across the entire site. This is a precautionary approach to remove potential pressures from future fishing activity. In the assessment period (2015 – 2019) there has been no use of beam trawls within the site, although there is anecdotal evidence that the gear type was previously trialled in the site. Boat dredges saw limited use within the site by foreign vessels during the assessment period.

For the other demersal mobile gears that would be prohibited from 50% of the site, this includes demersal seines and the remaining demersal trawl gear types recorded in the site during the assessment period (bottom otter trawls, multi-rig trawls, pair trawls, nephrops trawls, and unspecified bottom trawls). Demersal seine fishing occurs at very low levels (less than 12 fishing hours per year per grid cell) in small sections of the site; demersal seines are generally of lighter construction as there are no trawl doors or warps, resulting in less disturbance of the seabed than trawling (Polet & Depestele, 2010; Donaldson et al., 2010; Suuronen et al., 2012). Otter trawls tend to have less physical impact on the seafloor than beam trawls (and dredges) with their heavy tickler chains, although the doors of an otter trawl do create recognisable scour of the seabed (Hinz et al., 2012; Polet & Depestele, 2010; Lart, 2012; Paschen et al. 2000).

The condition of the offshore subtidal sands and gravels feature at West Shetland Shelf NCMPA has been assessed by JNCC as favourable (JNCC, 2020), and the zoned management option would remove the most damaging mobile demersal gear (bottom trawls and boat dredges) from the entire site, and the remaining demersal mobile gear from 50% of the site. Considering this, the remaining demersal mobile fishing activities were not assessed as 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.

Zonal exclusion of mobile demersal gear would contribute to 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 that zoned management measures would not hinder the achievement of the conservation objectives for West Shetland Shelf NCMPA, but rather would further them.

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 boat dredges) across the whole site (Figure 9). No prohibitions would be proposed for static demersal gear (including traps/creels and anchored nets/lines), 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 of favourable condition for the offshore 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.

Full site exclusion of mobile demersal 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 West Shetland Shelf NCMPA, rather it would further these objectives.

5.3. Management options conclusion

Scottish Ministers consider that adopting no additional management measures for mobile demersal fishing would , or might, hinder the achievement of the conservation objectives for West Shetland Shelf NCMPA. Scottish Ministers consider that both the zoned management measures and the full site exclusion option for mobile demersal fishing outlined above would further the achievement of the conservation objectives.

At current activity levels, fishing using static demersal gear (traps/creels and anchored nets/lines) is not considered to pose a risk to hindering the conservation objectives for West Shetland Shelf NCMPA, 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.