Sectoral marine plan for offshore wind energy: social and economic impact assessment scoping report

A.17. Water Sports

A.17.1 Sector Definition

This sector relates to recreational activities undertaken on or immersed in the sea including angling, surfing, windsurfing, sea kayaking, scuba diving and small sail boat activities (defined as dinghies, day boat or other small keelboats, usually taken out of water at the end of use).

Recreational boating activity in larger vessels such as yachts is covered separately in Appendix A.12 and general marine and coastal tourism is described in Appendix A.15, as the interactions and issues in relation to marine renewable developments are often distinctly different.

A.17.2 Overview of Activity

The Scottish Marine Recreation and Tourism Survey ( SMRTS) (Land Use Consultants ( LUC), 2016) collated information on recreation and tourism activities undertaken at sea or around the Scottish coast. Table 17.1 shows the total number of survey respondents (out of a total of 2170 individuals and representatives of clubs or similar organisations that completed the survey) who undertook marine watersports activity in 2015, key areas of concentrated activity and an estimate of the total expenditure of each activity ^[27] .

Table A.17.1 Participation in marine water sports activities around Scotland in 2015

Activity	Number of Respondents Taking Part	Key Areas of Concentrated Activity	Activity Specific Estimate of Trip Based Spending (£)
Sailing cruising including dinghy cruising at sea	578*	West coast from the Firth of Clyde, through Argyll towards Skye and Torridon. Also showed use of the Crinan, Caledonian and, to a lesser extent, the Forth and Clyde Canals	51,608,579
Canoeing or kayaking in the sea	447	The Firth of Clyde, Argyll Coast, Arisaig, Loch Broom and the Summer Isles, parts of the north coast, Moray Firth and sections of the Firth of Forth	16,697,121
Sea angling from the shore	390	The Lothian, Fife, Angus and Aberdeenshire coasts in the east and Inverclyde, Ayrshire and Dumfries and Galloway coasts in the west	51,930,216
Sea angling from a boat	380	Luce Bay and around the Mull of Galloway and in places along the Ayrshire and Argyll coasts	105,862,470
Rowing and sculling in the sea	279	Firth of Forth, Moray Firth and Loch Broom	2,763,528
Climbing, bouldering and coasteering at the coast	249	The coastline south of Aberdeen, locations within the Firth of Forth, an area around Oban and the Coigach coast	76,217,048
Surfing, surf kayaking, or paddleboarding in the sea	220	The north Caithness coast, the coastline between Banff and Aberdeen, the Lothian coast and parts of Argyll, including Machrihanish Bay and the Isle of Tiree	6,666,199
SCUBA diving in the sea	179	Scapa Flow, the Sound of Mull, sea lochs in Argyll, the southern coast of Arran and Lothian coastline	13,429,376
Dinghy racing at sea	107	The inner Firth of Clyde and the Firth of Forth	2,248,770
Long distance swimming in the sea	87	-	19,821,524
Windsurfing and kite surfing at the coast	56	Tiree	1,919,419
Water skiing and wakeboarding in the sea	27	-	597,330
Personal watercraft at sea	13	-	597,330

* This activity will also include vessels which are covered under Recreational Boating (medium to large vessels) in Appendix A.12 and hence does not reflect the number of participants undertaking marine watersports as defined in this section.

Source: LUC, 2016

The SMRTS estimated that the annual expenditure on marine recreation and tourism activities in Scotland (including but not limited to the activities listed in Table A.17.1) was worth £3.7 billion to the Scottish economy (although acknowledged that this is likely to be an overestimate). Around £2.4 billion of this is associated with general marine recreation and tourism (see Tourism, Appendix A.15) and around £1.3 billion is associated with more specialist activities including wildlife watching (see Tourism) and the marine watersport activities of sailing, kayaking, surfing and angling.

With regard to future trends, in general, levels of participation in water sport activities reflect the economic cycle but are generally expected to increase in the long-term. The key locations at which watersports are undertaken around the Scottish coast are likely to remain the same as, in general, location is determined by access and facilities ( e.g. slipways, marinas etc.) or by where the necessary sea conditions occur ( e.g. for surfing, windsurfing etc.).

Figure A.17.1 shows the concentration of general marine and coastal recreation ^[28] around the Scottish coast. Information sources that can be used in the assessment are listed in Table A.17.2.

Figure A.17.1 General Marine and Coastal Recreation activity in Scotland

Table A.17.2 Information sources for the water sports sector

Data Available	Information Source
Relative intensity of watersport activities	Strava Metro heatmaps: https://labs.strava.com/heatmap/#10.00/-2.04148/55.46990/hot/water
Sea angling activity, expenditure and economic impact (Scotland)	Scottish Government, 2009 http://www.gov.scot/resource/doc/280648/0084568.pdf
Sea angling –catches and expenditure ( UK)	Sea angling survey 2017 (ongoing – data not yet available) http://www.gov.scot/Topics/marine/Salmon-Trout-Coarse/seaangling/survey2016
Watersports participation survey ( UK)	Arkenford, 2016 (2016 data) http://www.rya.org.uk/SiteCollectionDocuments/sportsdevelopment/Watersports_Survey_2016%20-%20Summary.pdf
Scottish marine recreation and tourism (Scotland)	Scottish marine recreation and tourism survey 2015 http://www.gov.scot/Topics/marine/seamanagement/national/RecandTourism

A.17.3 Potential Interactions with Offshore Wind

Table A.17.3 shows potential interaction pathways between water sports and offshore wind arrays and export cables. Based on the approach to scoping described in Section 2 in the main report, the table also records whether the interaction:

• Is not likely to result in a significant socio-economic impact on the sector; or
• Is likely to result in a significant socio-economic impact on the sector and hence will require a detailed assessment;

The rationale underlying this expert judgement is provided in the table. Where it is not currently possible to make a judgement regarding the likelihood of a significant socio-economic impact due to insufficient information (for example, in relation to the extent of overlap between a sector activity and the DPO Areas) the table indicates that scoping will be required to be undertaken once sufficient information becomes available. Furthermore, as described in the main report, there is currently no information regarding the likely location of export cable routes/corridors and as such, it is not possible to undertake a meaningful assessment of the potential for any sector activity/export cable interaction to give rise to significant socio-economic effects. Rather, the potential for any interaction will be identified in Regional Locational Guidance.

Table A.17.3 Potential interaction pathways

Potential Interaction	Technology Aspect	Potential Socio-economic Consequences	Initial Scoping Assessment
Displacement due to spatial overlap between array and water sport activity	Array (construction and operation)	Reduction in activity levels leading to loss of revenue for water sport business.	Any potential significant impacts would only be expected where either DPO areas overlapped with areas of watersport activity. The location of DPO areas is not currently available. However, as DPO areas will likely be located offshore, it is considered unlikely that DPO areas will overlap with areas where watersports such as surfing, windsurfing, shore-based angling or kayaking are undertaken at high intensity, which is mainly inshore (although it is acknowledged that experienced kayakers may undertake the activity further offshore e.g. when crossing between a headland and an island). In addition, small boat sailing activity is expected to occur within RYA racing or sailing areas in the vicinity of sailing clubs while scuba diving is generally undertaken at discreet diving sites such as wrecks or areas with interesting and rich marine life or seascapes. As such it is considered that any potential interaction with the above watersport activities could be avoided through the use of marine spatial planning. There is the potential for DPO areas to overlap with recreational angling sites (the majority of which occur within 11 km of the coast (Radford et al, 2009), The impact of the interaction between arrays and areas of boat-based sea angling activity will need to be assessed once the location of the DPO areas is available. See Section A.17.5.1 for proposed assessment methodology for recreational sea angling activities.
Decrease in recreational quality of the environment ( e.g. arising indirectly from visual/noise disturbance)	Array (construction and operation),	Reduction in activity levels leading to loss of revenue for water sport business.	Any potential significant impacts would only be expected where DPOs resulted in significant landscape and visual impacts or significant above water noise impacts for watersport participants. The location of DPO areas is not currently available. However, as DPO areas are likely to be located offshore to minimise visual impacts, and in general most watersports are undertaken in inshore waters (see above). Hence it is considered unlikely that the DPO areas will give rise to any significant landscape and visual impacts or above water noise, which will decrease the recreational quality for participants. No detailed assessment required (see Tourism in Appendix A.15 for assessment of any potential landscape and visual impacts on general tourism).
	Export cables (construction only, including in area of landfall)	Temporary reduction in activity levels leading to loss of revenue for water sport business.	Export cable routes are uncertain. Constraints inshore of DPOs will be identified in the RLG. However, it can be noted that any impact will be temporary. No detailed assessment possible.
Displacement due to spatial overlap between cable corridors and water sport activity	Export cables (construction only)	Temporary reduction in activity levels due to displacement during construction leading to loss of revenue for water sport business	Export cable routes are uncertain. Constraints inshore of DPOs will be identified in the RLG. However, it can be noted that any impact will be temporary. No detailed assessment possible.
Impacts to wave quality (surfing)	Array (construction and operation)	Reduction in surfing activity leading to loss of revenue for water sport business	Evidence from existing offshore renewables developments indicates that there have been negligible or only very minor significant changes in wave quality at the shoreline as a result of developments ( ABPmer and RPA, 2013). However, to date research and EIA studies have concerned the impacts of offshore renewable energy developments that are considerably smaller in scale than proposed future developments. While it remains unlikely that many future developments will significantly affect wave quality, applying broad assumptions and criteria at a Sectoral level is likely to provide inaccurate results. Instead it is recommended that the economic consequences of impacts to wave quality are discussed at project-level. This should be based on the output of wave modelling studies and in consultation with relevant stakeholders as part of the EIA scoping and consultation process. Detailed assessment not required at sectoral level.

A.17.4 Scoping Methodology

A.17.4.1 Impacts to recreational sea angling activities

To determine where detailed assessments of the interaction may be required when DPO area locations are available, the following scoping criteria are proposed:

• Where the spatial extent of indicative arrays is predicted to occupy less than 1% of the DPO area that lies within 6 nm of the coast, it has been assumed that spatial planning within the DPO area can be used to avoid significant impacts and no detailed assessment should be required;
• Where the spatial extent of indicative arrays is predicted to occupy more than 1% of the DPO area that lies within 6 nm, a detailed assessment should be undertaken.

A.17.4.2 Impacts on wave quality

Any potential impact on wave quality should be assessed at project level via EIA.

A.17.5 Assessment Methodology

A.17.5.1 Impacts to recreational sea angling

Where scoping indicates that a detailed impact assessment is required, the potential economic cost of the loss of marine space for recreational sea angling can be estimated based on:

• The total reduction in expenditure/loss of income, calculated by multiplying the percentage loss of area (to arrays) within 6 nm, by the estimated value of boat-based sea angling in the relevant region (derived from Radford et al, 2009).

A.17.6 Data Limitations

In general, data on the distribution and intensity of marine watersport activities is limited. In the SMRTS outputs described above, the authors noted that low response rates to the survey for a minority of activities mean that some spatial information is incomplete. Furthermore, the smaller number of responses covering remoter parts of Scotland means that spatial information for areas such as the Western Isles and Shetland is also likely to be partial ( LUC, 2016).