Fisheries Management Measures within Scottish Offshore Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) - Socio-Economic Impact Assessment

1. Introduction

Background

The Scottish Government has made a long-term commitment to ensuring the sustainable management of the marine environment by balancing the competing interests of use and protection of the sea. This includes a number of protective designations, including nature conservation Marine Protected Areas^[5],[6],[7] (MPAs) and Special Areas of Conservation^[8],^[9] (SACs) and Special Protection Areas (SPAs). These designations arise from domestic legislation, including legislation that implemented the requirements of European Union (EU) Directives prior to the United Kingdom (UK) leaving the EU, as well as wider UK and international legislation focused on building a cohesive network of protected areas to benefit the conservation of vulnerable and characteristic marine species and habitats.

There are 58 SACs with marine components in Scotland, 47 of which are in inshore waters^[10], nine are completely in offshore waters^[11], and a further two sites which have parts in both inshore and offshore waters. In addition, the Scottish Government has designated 36 Nature Conservation MPAs under the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010 and Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009 in inshore and offshore waters. Of the 36 MPAs, 23 are in inshore waters, 11 in offshore waters and a further two which are in both inshore and offshore waters.

In line with the relevant legislation, suitable management measures must be implemented at each site to conserve the protected features. Fisheries management measures were introduced for 20 inshore MPAs (comprising 10 Nature Conservation MPAs and 10 SACs) in early 2016. Fisheries management measures for offshore MPAs are now in development to ensure the site conservation objectives are achieved. The development of draft fisheries management measures for further inshore MPAs, Priority Marine Features (PMFs), SACs and SPAs (some of which also overlap the offshore area) are being taken forward under a separate process.

The proposed consultation on implementation of fisheries management measures at the 21 offshore MPAs shown in Table 1 and Figure 1 are the subject of this Socio Economic Impact Assessment Report, produced as part of a Sustainability Appraisal (SA). For the purposes of clarity, Nature Conservation MPAs and SACs are referred to as MPAs when they are being considered collectively in this report.

Measures were initially developed for Turbot Bank MPA which would prohibit targeted Sandeel fishing across the full area. However, in 2023, the Scottish Government consulted on a closure to all fishing for Sandeel in all Scottish waters. As a result of this consultation The Sandeel (Prohibition Of Fishing) (Scotland) Order 2024 came into force on 26 March 2024 ahead of the 2024 fishery season and applies to all vessels (UK and EU) fishing within Scottish waters. Therefore site specific management measures are no longer proposed for this site.

Turbot Bank MPA will still feature as one of the 21 MPAs assessed within this assessment and the wider package of consultation documents which were prepared before the sandeel fisheries closure. Removing the site from the documents is not considered practical at this stage. This is because in addition to site specific assessments, overall assessments have been undertaken for the impacts of implementing measures as a full package.

As a matter of policy, the proposals require socio-economic impact assessment (SEIA) to provide Scottish Ministers with information on the potential costs and benefits of the proposals.

The location of the offshore MPAs under consideration are shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Map of offshore MPAs for which fisheries management measures are proposed

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ALT Map showing Scottish waters, ICES rectangles, and the location and names of the offshore MPAs and SACs which fisheries management measures are proposed and are under consideration in this SEIA.

Social and Economic Impact Assessment

The purpose of the SEIA is to identify and assess the potential economic and social effects of a proposed development or policy on the lives and circumstances of people, their families and their communities. It considers the potential economic benefits and costs, and their distribution among different groups, to inform the assessment of potential impacts on individuals, communities and society.

This study aims to assess the potential economic and social effects of the proposed fisheries management measures for the offshore MPAs.

The objectives of the study were, for each individual MPA and under each of the two management options:

• Identify and estimate the potential costs to commercial fisheries specifically arising from the two proposed management options for each MPA;
• Identify any communities and social groups that may be adversely or positively affected by the proposals, and quantify the scale and costs of such impacts where possible;
• Estimate the costs to government (public sector costs) associated with the proposals;
• Identify, describe and quantify the potential costs and benefits to society as a whole associated with the proposed management measures at each individual site.

Based on the individual MPA impact assessments, a cumulative assessment is also required to estimate the potential aggregate costs of management measures across the suite of areas as a whole and the overall impact on commercial fisheries, communities, social groups and Government.

An in-combination assessment is also required to present information on the potential total impact as a result of all MPAs together with other planned projects such as renewable energy development.

The assessment provides Scottish Government with evidence on economic and social effects to inform a Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment (BRIA), Islands Communities Impact Assessment (ICIA) and a Sustainability Appraisal (SA) for the proposals.

Purpose and Structure of this Report

The purpose of this report is to document the findings of the SEIA. A Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) of the proposed management options has also been undertaken and is reported separately. The key findings of both the SEA and the SEIA are summarised in an overall Sustainability Appraisal (SA) document.

The remainder of this SEIA Report is structured as follows:

• Section 2 provides information on the proposed management measures for the MPAs and their policy context;
• Section 3 describes the approach to the SEIA and the methods used;
• Section 4 presents the results of the assessment in relation to potential impacts on commercial fisheries and their upstream supply chains;
• Section 5 presents the potential impacts on the public sector;
• Section 6 presents the distribution of economic costs and consequent social impacts, including downstream supply chains;
• Section 7 presents the potential impacts on ecosystem services;
• Section 8 considers the potential cumulative impacts of the proposals and the impacts in combination with other planned projects and proposals; and
• Section 9 presents the limitations and uncertainties in the assessment.

The Non-Technical Summary precedes Section 1. Further detailed information is provided in Appendices as follows:

• Appendix A: Abbreviations;
• Appendix B: Public sector costs;
• Appendix C: Site Assessments (providing detailed assessments for each MPA/SAC);
• Appendix D: Analysis of non-UK vessels’ activity; and
• Appendix E: Summary of displacement test outcomes.