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

4. Proposed Fisheries Management Measures

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.

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.

For fifteen sites, two options for fisheries management are presented within this consultation. These two options present different levels of management and will be considered against the relevant legislative provisions in the light of consultation responses. These options are presented below. Fishing gear requiring management are identified from advice and evidence provided by JNCC, which is available for each site and can be access through the JNCC Resource Hub.

• Option 1: Zonal restrictions on the use of specified gear identified as requiring management.
• Option 2: Restrictions on the use of specified gear identified as requiring management from the full designated site.

The options also support the environmental outcomes of the National Performance Framework by restricting fishing activities to levels that will support the achievement of site conservation objectives. Both also support the Scottish Governments sustainable development goals of the National Performance Framework by allowing fishing activity which has been identified as not requiring management to continue in the site.

For sites with two fisheries management proposals presented, Option 1 represents zoned measures for specified fishing activity. Option 2 restricts specified fishing activity from the full site. The management options proposed for each site are outlined in Table 2 and Table 3 with further detail provided in the site proposal document and fisheries assessments.

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 zonal measures presented under Option 1 are measures that were developed in workshops with stakeholders from 2013-2017 under the EU Common Fisheries Policy (CFP). While the UK was a member of the EU, Scotland was required to follow the CFP process in order to implement fisheries management measures for conservation purposes in the Scottish offshore region. However this process was not completed prior to the UK exiting the EU.

Following the EU exit, Scotland is continuing this work using domestic powers, as explained in the section ‘MPA Fisheries Management Measures’ above. Some amendments to the proposed measures have been made post-2017 due to changes in available supporting evidence. Any changes were put forward for discussion with stakeholders in 2022.

The full site restrictions under Option 2 impose a greater level of restriction on fishing activities in the site.

The socio-economic and environmental impacts have been assessed for each proposed management option for individual sites, and also for the full suite of sites. These estimated impacts are fully detailed in the Socio-Economic Impact Assessment and Strategic Environmental Assessment.

The impacts assessed (and where to find them) are as follows:

• Environmental impacts
  • Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA)
  • Draft Fisheries Assessments (site specific)
  • Sustainability Appraisal (SA)
• Socio-economic impacts
  • Socio-economic Impact Assessment (SEIA)
  • Sustainability Appraisal (SA)
  • Partial Business Regulatory Impact Assessment (BRIA)
  • Partial Island Community Impact Assessment (ICIA)

Key findings from these assessments are presented in Annex B of this document.