Fisheries Management Measures within Scottish Offshore Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) - Site Proposal Document

1. Introduction

1.1 Purpose

The Scottish Government is consulting on fisheries management options for 20 sites wholly or partly within Scotland’s offshore region (12-200 nautical miles). The proposed fisheries management measures have been developed for individual sites. The measures proposed are based on best available scientific evidence regarding the risk to designated features from different fishing gear.

This document describes the protected areas within Scottish offshore waters for which fisheries management measures have been identified as necessary to achieve the site conservation objectives. It sets out the principles and processes followed to develop these proposals and management advice from the statutory conservation nature bodies (SNCBs) Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) and NaureScot.

For 15 sites, the two options for fisheries management within the consultation present differing levels of management which both meet the policy and legislative requirements.

Option 1 represents zoned measures for specified fishing activity. These zonal measures are measures that were developed in workshops with stakeholders from 2013-2017 under the EU Common Fisheries Policy (CFP).

Option 2 restricts specified fishing activity from the full site. This presents a higher level of environmental protection through increased levels of fisheries restrictions.

For five sites, only one management proposal is presented which is a full site exclusion for fishing with specified gear. This is the case where a full site level of protection from the specified gear has been identified as the only suitable option to support the achievement the conservation objectives of the site.

The gear types identified as requiring management for each site are identified from advice and evidence provided by JNCC. This is evidence and advice is available for each site in the Fisheries Management Options papers which can be accessed through the JNCC website: Resource Hub.

Option 1

Measures which have been developed and agreed upon through extensive negotiations with the fishing industry and Environmental Non-Governmental Organisations (eNGOs).

Under this option, restrictions on gears identified as requiring management may be zonal or full site.

Option 2

Measures which restrict the use of fishing gears identified as requiring management from the full designated site.

1.2 Background

Following the designation of an MPA, it may be necessary to implement fisheries measures within a site to enable the achievement of the conservation objectives. Conservation objectives are assigned following designation and provide the broad ecological aims of each site. The measures required to support the achievement of the objectives will depend upon the protected features and could include restrictions on certain gear types, and spatial or temporal restrictions.

Until 31 December 2020, the UK was a member of the European Union (EU) and as such was required to adhere to the principles of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP). According to Article 11 of the CFP, Member States are empowered to adopt conservation measures that are necessary to comply with their obligations under Article 6 of the EU Habitats Directive and Article 13(4) of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD).

Where measures are required out with waters where the member state has exclusive competence the European Commission (EC) is empowered to adopt such measures by means of delegated acts. As required, the UK was in the process of developing Joint Recommendations to the EC, Advisory Councils, and stakeholders in respect of the Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) and Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) in Scottish offshore waters.

Scotland was required to follow the above process in order to implement fisheries management measures for conservation purposes in the Scottish offshore region. This process was not completed prior to the UK exiting the EU and therefore Scotland can progress offshore fisheries management using domestic processes and powers.

1.3 Roles of JNCC and Scottish Government Marine Directorate

The Marine Directorate (MD, previously known as Marine Scotland) is the directorate of the Scottish Government with the remit to ensure appropriate management measures are in place to support the conservation objectives of designated sites. The Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) is the Statutory Nature Conservation Body (SNCB) responsible for advising the Scottish Government on nature conservation of the offshore region (12-200 nautical miles). NatureScot have also been consulted where sites within the offshore region overlap with the boundary of the inshore region (0-12 nautical miles). In doing this, JNCC’s aim is to ensure the conservation objectives for the protected features can be met. Advice is presented in the Fisheries Options Paper for each site. These papers involve undertaking an extensive literature review to collate evidence on the potential impacts of different gear types on protected features.

Scottish Government will lead discussions on management with stakeholders. They will consider JNCC’s advice and will lead on the development of specific fisheries management measures. They will be responsible for making recommendations to Scottish Ministers on these measures. Using this information, the level of risk to features achieving their conservation objectives under a range of management options is assessed.

Stakeholders can provide additional evidence to support the development of fisheries management measures, including local knowledge of the environment and activities. Discussions with stakeholders will be one way of highlighting the implications of any management measures to both JNCC and Scottish Government. This will contribute to the development of well-designed and effective fisheries management measures.

In addition, where site boundaries cross the 12 nautical mile territorial limit, Scottish Government have sought the input and advice of NatureScot who are the SNCB responsible for providing nature conservation advice for the inshore region. The sites which overlap offshore and inshore region and measures are proposed are Pobie Bank Reef SAC, Solan Bank Reef SAC, and Firth of Forth Banks Complex MPA. JNCC have led on the development of the proposed measures for these sites and these have been reviewed by NatureScot.

1.4 Gear categorisation and definitions

Throughout this document, measures and advice refer to categories of gear. These categories have been defined based on their mechanics and risk of contact with the seabed. The gear types captured within each category are outlined in Table 1.

Table 2 presents the definitions given to specific gear types included in these categories. Definitions have been adapted from those defined under Article 6, Regulation (EU) 2019/1241.

Specific gear type definitions

Trawl: Fishing gear which is actively towed by one or more fishing vessels and consisting of a net closed at the back by a bag or a codend

Towed gear: Any trawls, Danish seines, dredges and similar gear which are actively moved in the water by one or more fishing vessels or by any other mechanised system

Bottom trawl: A trawl designed to operate on or near the seabed

Bottom pair trawl: A bottom trawl towed by two boats simultaneously, one towing each side of the trawl. The horizontal opening of the trawl is maintained by the distance between the two vessels as they tow the gear;

Beam trawl: Gear with a trawl net open horizontally by a beam, wing or similar device

Scottish or Danish seine: ‘Danish seine’ or ‘Scottish seine’ means an encircling and towed gear, operated from a boat by means of two long ropes (seine ropes) designed to herd the fish towards the opening of the seine. The gear is made up of a net which is similar in design to a bottom trawl

Pair trawl/pair seine: A net that is towed between two vessel using long lengths of rope or wire on the seabed

Dredges: Gear which are either actively towed by the main boat engine (boat dredge) or hauled by a motorised winch from an anchored vessel (mechanised dredge). Some dredges are equipped with hydraulic equipment (hydraulic dredges)

Pelagic longline: A fishing gear consisting of a main line of variable length, to which branch lines (snoods) with hooks are fixed at intervals determined by the target species. The main line is allowed to drift on the surface

Set/static net: Any type of gillnet, entangling net or trammel net that is anchored to the seabed for fish to swim into and become entangled or enmeshed in the netting

Driftnet: A net held on the water surface or at a certain distance below it by floating devices and drifting with the current, either independently or with the boat to which it may be attached. It may be equipped with devices aiming to stabilise the net or to limit its drift

Gillnet: A static net made up of a single piece of net and held vertically in the water by floats and weights

Entangling net: A static net consisting of a wall of netting rigged so that the netting is hung onto the ropes to create a greater amount of slack netting than a gillnet

Trammel net: A static net made up of several layers of netting with two outer layers of a large mesh size with a sheet of small mesh sandwiched between them

Demersal longline: A fishing gear consisting of a main line of variable length, to which branch lines (snoods) with hooks are fixed at intervals determined by the target species. The main line is anchored either horizontally on or near the bottom or vertically

Pots, traps and creels: Traps in the form of cages or baskets having one or more entrances, designed to catch crustaceans, molluscs or fish, that are set on the seabed or suspended above it

1.5 Legal Frameworks

The UK Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009 outlines a general objective to contribute to the achievement of sustainable development. Under the Act (Section 123), Scottish Ministers have a duty to designate MPAs to the UK network of protected marine sites which contributes to the conservation of improvement of the marine environment in the UK marine area.

The MPA network contributes to further duties and obligations of the Scottish Government including the commitment for Good Environmental Status under the Marine Strategy Framework Directive. A well-managed MPA network will help to fulfil the commitment to OSPAR Commission’s strategic objective to establish an ecologically coherent network of marine protected areas. The Scottish Biodiversity strategy Post-2020 Statement of Intent signals the ambitions of the Scottish Government to end biodiversity loss by 2030, and restore and regenerate biodiversity by 2045.

There is a legislative requirement for the Scottish Ministers to take conservation measures in SACs in a way that corresponds with the ecological requirements of the habitats and species for which the sites have been designated. In doing so, under The Conservation of Offshore Habitats and Species Regulations 2017 they are required to have regard to the need to maintain or restore the protected features of the site to favourable conservation status; the economic, social and cultural requirements and regional and local characteristics; and any management scheme which has been established for the site.

For NCMPAs, under the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009 and Marine Scotland Act 2010, Scottish Ministers have a duty to exercise functions which could significantly affect an NCMPA in a manner that best furthers the conservation objectives of the site (or where that is not possible, least hinders the achievement of the objectives).

It is intended that the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009 and Sea Fish (Conservation) Act 1967 will be the legislative mechanisms used to implement those measures.

1.5.1 Special Areas of Conservation

There is also a requirement set out in the following regulations for designation of specific protected sites to protect certain species and habitats;

a) The Conservation of Offshore Marine Habitats and Species Regulations 2017 in relation to the offshore area around the UK. The offshore area extends from the limit of the territorial sea to the UK Continental Shelf Claim Limit.

b) The Conservation (Natural Habitats, &c.) Regulations 1994 in relation to Scottish Territorial Waters.

Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) in the offshore are designated for habitats and species listed in Schedule 1 and 2 of The Conservation of Offshore Marine Habitats and Species Regulations 2017. Scotland currently has 58 SACs with marine components, covering 8% of the Scottish sea area. Forty-seven of these SACs are in inshore waters, nine are completely in offshore waters, and there are two sites which have parts in both inshore and offshore waters. Those with offshore components are outlined in Table 3 below.

1.5.2 Nature Conservation Marine Protected Areas

The UK Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009 provides for the designation of NCMPAs in Scottish offshore waters.

NCMPAs are selected on the basis of the guidelines set out in the Scottish MPA Selection Guidelines and protect a wide range of species and habitats of importance both nationally and internationally. The Scottish Government has designated 37 NCMPAs under the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010 and The UK Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009. Of the 36 MPAs, 24 are in territorial waters, 13 in offshore waters and two which cross the boundary of inshore and offshore waters. Those with offshore components are outlined in Table 3 below.

1.5.3 Special Protection Areas

Special Protection Areas (SPAs) are protected areas for birds in the UK classified under:

• the Wildlife & Countryside Act 1981 (as amended) and the Conservation (Natural Habitats, & c.) Regulations 2010 (as amended)
• the Conservation of Offshore Marine Habitats and Species Regulations 2017 (as amended) in the UK offshore area.

Within Scottish waters there are 10 SPAs with marine components, seven wholly within inshore waters and three of which cross the boundary of inshore and offshore waters. These sites will be considered for fisheries management measures and assessed within the inshore work programme.