Fisheries management measures within Scottish Offshore Marine Protected Areas (MPAs): consultation analysis

Solan Bank Reef SAC

Overview

Overall, the majority of responses to this question indicate support for Option 2 for the Solan Bank Reef SAC. This is significantly influenced by responses from the Oceana and SE Link campaigns which support these measures while responses from the SWFPA campaign prefer Option 1.

It should be noted that the majority of organisational responses (56%) and non-campaign responses (61%) supported Option 1 for this site. This again demonstrates a difference in opinion among industry and those advocating for full site management for environmental reasons which will be drawn out in the detailed qualitative analysis.

Support for Option 2 (full site) measures

The vast majority of responses expressed strong support for Option 2. They highlighted that the primary aim of managing this MPA to restore the features to favourable conservation status and argued that all demersal mobile gear poses a significant risk to this obligation:

“…trawling within an MPA is not seen as a sustainable practice, even if it is only for a limited period of the year” – [Organisation].

Therefore, it was believed that full site, year-round exclusion of demersal mobile gear would deliver greater and faster achievement towards the primary aim and government commitments, including Good Environmental Status.

One respondent felt that the proposed management under Option 1 would be confusing and inefficient to enforce and monitor. They also questioned the conclusions of the environmental assessment, in which Option 2 is said to have more environmental benefit with no greater level of displacement:

“…we cannot agree that closing the site to trawling will only have a “negligible neutral” impact” - [Organisation].

Potential ecological benefits of full site protection

Some of the respondents in favour of Option 2 felt that full site measures would help to protect the characteristic fauna of the stony and bedrock reef feature at Solan Bank Reef SAC, which can be negatively impacted by resuspended sediment from fishing activities. It was felt that adequate connectivity between all of the SACs protecting reef features is key in ensuring the dispersal of dependent organisms is supported.

Consideration of Option 1

While the majority of responses supported full site measures (Option 2), those in support of Option 1 noted that the zonal fisheries management measures proposed were developed with the support of the stakeholders who took part in the relevant workshops and should be respected.

Many respondents who supported Option 1 also said that they did not consider Option 2 to be a ‘reasonable alternative’ to Option 1, particularly where they felt the “impact and scale of environmental benefits are assessed as of similar benefit for both options yet the financial and employment costs under Option 2 are higher” [Organisation]. In addition, some respondents believed that access to an area where the protected feature is not present poses no threat to the conservation objective for the site being achieved.

Summary

The responses to the proposed measures for the Solan Bank Reef SAC reveal a majority in favour of comprehensive, full site protection, and claimed this is necessary to meet the primary aim of managing this MPA. Some suggested that Option 2 may aid the protection of the characteristic fauna of the stony and bedrock reef feature.

Meanwhile, the small number of respondents who supported Option 1 pointed to previous stakeholder discussions and did not consider Option 2 to be a ‘reasonable alternative’ to Option 1 due to its higher financial and employment costs.