Assessing fisheries displacement by other licensed marine activities: good practice guidance

1 Introduction and background

The cultural and economic importance of the commercial fishing industry, and renewable energy sector is recognised by Scotland's National Marine Plan,^[4] together with the need to facilitate coexistence between development sectors, ecological resources, and activities within the Scottish Marine area and in the wider context of Marine Spatial Planning (Scottish Government, 2015). With the spatial expansion and technological advancement of offshore^[5] energy projects expected to occur over the next few decades, particularly offshore wind farm (OWF) projects, there is an increasing focus on the approach and methods for offshore Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA).

Commercial fisheries are a key receptor and stakeholder for offshore EIAs, particularly in relation to OWF projects. Developing guidance for assessing commercial fishing effort displacement was highlighted as a priority evidence gap in the Scottish Marine Energy Research (ScotMER) fish and fisheries evidence map (Brown and May Marine, 2021; ABPmer 2017).

This Good Practice Guidance document (hereafter referred to as the / this "Guidance") has been commissioned by Marine Scotland in response to the ScotMER evidence map programme work mentioned above. Extensive consultation has been carried out to inform the Guidance with the ScotMER Fish and Fisheries Specialist Receptor Group (FFSRG),^[6] commercial fisheries industry, offshore energy and regulatory sectors.

Through the process of the development of this Guidance, knowledge gaps and subsequent potential areas of future research have been identified, which are detailed within the accompanying Literature Review (Section 8).