Scottish Offshore Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) - fisheries management measures: fisheries assessment – West Shetland Shelf NCMPA

2. Part A Assessment – Fisheries screening

2.1. Fisheries screening overview

Part A of this assessment considers whether the fishing activity would be capable of affecting the protected features of an MPA or any ecological or geomorphological process on which the conservation of any protected feature is dependent.

In Part A of this assessment the pressure-feature interactions were assessed to determine if the activities are capable of affecting the protected feature. This section looks at the pressures exerted by the fishing activity occurring in the site (within the assessment period) in relation to the sensitivities of the protected features. Activities potentially capable of affecting the protected feature were identified where there was both a medium-high risk of a pressure arising from the fishing activity and if any of the features were considered sensitive to that pressure. These pressure-features interactions were then taken forward to the fisheries assessment stage (Part B) to determine whether the fishing activity in question would or might hinder the achievement of the conservation objectives.

For each activity assessed in Part A, there were two possible outcomes for each identified pressure-feature interaction:

1. The pressure-feature interactions were not included for Part B:

a. If the feature is not exposed to the pressure, and is not likely to be in the future; or

b. If the effect/impact of the pressure is non -existent or insignificant.

2. The pressure-feature interactions were included for assessment in Part B:

a. If the feature is exposed to the pressure, or is it likely to be in the future; and

b. If the pressure is capable of affecting the feature ; or

c. If it is not possible to determine whether the pressure is capable of affecting the feature.

Part B of the assessment considers the potential for activities to affect the feature by assessing the impact of fishing gears identified in Part A. This involves determining the level of interaction between the feature and the fishing activity, assessing the potential impact on the feature, and subsequently if fishing activities would or might hinder the achievement of the conservation objectives for the site.

Consideration of exposure to and the effect of a pressure on a protected feature of the MPA includes the consideration of exposure to and the effect of that pressure on any ecological or geomorphological process on which the conservation of the protected feature is wholly or in part dependant.

The West Shetland Shelf NCMPA – Conservation Advice 2018 ; West Shetland Shelf NCMPA – Management Options Paper 2014 ; and West Shetland Shelf NCMPA Site Information Centre were used to inform this assessment. These are the most recent sources of conservation and management advice available.

Where appropriate, this advice has been supplemented by information on pressures associated with fishing activity from the JNCC Marine Pressures-Activities Database (PAD) v1.5 2022 and the Feature Activity Sensitivity Tool (FeAST).

2.2. Activities taking place within West Shetland Shelf NCMPA

To screen out fishing activities that were not taking place within the site or likely to take part in the future, vessel monitoring system (VMS) data within West Shetland Shelf NCMPA from 2015 to 2019 were analysed to identify the gear types being used in the site and the aggregated gear method (Table 1). The fishing gears screened out at this stage were not taken forward to Part B of the assessment.

2.3. Potential pressures exerted by site fishing activities on protected features

According to the JNCC West Shetland Shelf NCMPA Management Options Paper (2014), the fishing activities considered capable of affecting the offshore subtidal sands and gravels feature are creeling and potting, based on mobile fishing gears being prohibited in the ‘Windsock’ by Technical Conservation Regulation 850/98. Since the JNCC advice was issued in 2014, new Technical Conservation Regulations (Regulation (EU) 2019/1241) were introduced lifting the windsock restrictions as of 14 August 2019.

Based on the VMS data collected for the current assessment, which includes the period immediately after the Windsock was lifted, fishing activities considered capable of affecting the offshore subtidal sands and gravels feature include mobile demersal gear (trawls, seines, and boat dredges) and static demersal gear (traps/creels and anchored nets/lines). Pelagic fishing, in particular single and paired mid-water trawls, whilst occurring in the site was not considered capable of affecting the subtidal sands and gravels feature as these fishing activities do not contact the bottom. Gear types considered capable of affecting the feature were retained in the assessment, gear types not considered capable of affecting the feature were screened out.

The potential pressures that could be exerted by fishing activities considered capable of affecting the subtidal sands and gravels feature (demersal trawls, demersal seines, boat dredges, static traps/creels, and anchored nets/lines) were determined using information on activity-pressure relationships in the JNCC Marine Pressures-Activities Database (PAD) v1.5 2022. The potential pressures that could be exerted by demersal trawls, demersal seines, boat dredges, static traps/creels, and anchored nets/lines are summarised in Table 2.

The aggregated gear type of ‘anchored nets/lines’ spans two categories in the PAD: set (fixed) net fishing and line fishing. Subsequently, potential pressures for this aggregated gear type were listed under the two PAD categories (Table 2). The risk profiling of pressures was the same for set (fixed) net fishing and line fishing within PAD, confirming that these categories could be considered together under the aggregated gear type of ‘anchored nets/lines’ in later sections of the assessment.

Within the PAD, boat dredges were considered to have a low risk of introduction of microbial pathogens however this pressure only applies to native oyster populations, which are not part of the subtidal sands and gravels feature, and so this pressure was excluded from Table 2. The above water noise and collision above water pressures both had low risk profiles for all five aggregated fishing activity types, however these pressures were not considered capable of affecting the subtidal sands and gravels feature and were excluded.

2.4. Significance of effects/impacts to protected features

In the absence of a JNCC Advice on Operations advice package for this site, the Feature Activity Sensitivity Tool (FeAST) was used to determine the potential sensitivity of the offshore subtidal sands and gravels feature (Table 3) to the pressures exerted by the relevant fishing activities (Table 2). The West Shetland Shelf NCMPA offshore subtidal sands and gravels protected feature encompasses a range of sub-components including the EUNIS Level 4 habitats circalittoral coarse sediments, circalittoral mixed sediments, and circalittoral sands (JNCC, 2014). Within FeAST, the equivalent features are continental shelf coarse sediments, continental shelf mixed sediments, and continental shelf sands. These three features were used to determine the sensitivity of the offshore subtidal sands and gravels feature to fishing activity.

¹Whilst Environmental Quality Standards exist for non-synthetic and synthetic compounds in the marine environment, compliance with these EQS is not considered appropriate to ensure a Not Sensitive scoring in all cases and a Sensitive score is given for all features to reflect concerns that need to be addressed on a site basis.

²In FeAST, ‘Physical change (to another seabed type)’ encompasses both change to ‘another seabed type’ and ‘another sediment type’, as defined in the JNCC PAD.

*An asterisk is used to denote an underlaying range of sensitivities for habitat features (e.g. due to the feature including species with a range of different sensitivities to a pressure). high* denotes that the highest sensitivity score for the features is high; medium* denotes that the highest sensitivity score for the feature is medium. Unknown is used where there is no information in FeAST about the sensitivity of this habitat to the pressure listed.

Considering both the information on the pressure activity association (Table 2) and the sensitivity of the subtidal sands and gravels feature (Table 3), pressures that have the potential to affect the feature are summarised in Table 4.

Pressures that are not relevant to demersal trawls, demersal seines, boat dredges, traps/creels, and anchored nets/lines (pressures that are not exerted by that fishing activity: ‘not relevant to the activity’ in Table 2) do not need to be considered further in the assessment. According to the PAD methods document (Robson et al., 2018), pressures with low risk profiles (i.e. ‘low’ risk profile for the activity: Tables 2 and 4) generally do not occur at a level of concern and should not require consideration as part of an assessment, unless there are evidence-based case or site-specific factors that increase the risk, or there is uncertainty on the level of pressure on a receptor. Pressures with ‘medium-high’ risk profiles are commonly induced by the activity at a level that needs to be considered further as part of an assessment.

Pressures from the FeAST sensitivity assessment for continental shelf coarse sediments, continental shelf mixed sediments, and continental shelf sands that were Not Exposed, Not Assessed, and Unknown were not considered further in the assessment (Table 4). Pressures where the feature was assessed as Not Sensitive were also screened out.

Pressures with a medium-high risk profile in PAD and to which FeAST assessed the feature as being Sensitive, Medium Sensitivity or High Sensitivity have the potential to affect the feature.

Of all the pressures considered, five have medium-high risk profiles (PAD) and have medium-high sensitivity (FeAST): abrasion/disturbance of the substrate on the surface of the seabed; penetration and/or disturbance of the substrate below the surface of the seabed, including abrasion; changes in suspended solids (water clarity); smothering and siltation rate changes (light); and removal of non-target species (Table 4). These five pressures are subsequently considered to have the potential to affect the offshore subtidal gravels and sands feature. All five of these pressures are exerted by demersal trawls and demersal seines; static traps/creels are only associated with abrasion/disturbance of the substrate on the surface of the seabed, and removal of non-target species.

To ensure the effects of fishing activities in-combination with other activities (including other fishing activities) are fully assessed, the pressures from fishing activities which were not identified as capable of affecting the feature but which do interact with the features are considered in the in-combination aspect of the assessment (Part C).

2.5. Part A Conclusion

Considering the information on pressures and sensitivity above, mobile demersal fishing (including trawls, seines, and dredges) has the potential to affect the offshore subtidal sands and gravels feature within West Shetland Shelf NCMPA, through abrasion/disturbance of the substrate on the surface of the seabed; penetration and/or disturbance of the substrate below the surface of the seabed, including abrasion; changes in suspended solids (water clarity); smothering and siltation rate changes (light); and the removal of non-target species. Static demersal fishing (traps/creels and anchored nets/lines) has the potential to affect the offshore subtidal sands and gravels feature within West Shetland Shelf NCMPA through abrasion/disturbance of the substrate on the surface of the seabed and the removal of non-target species. The five pressures are considered to have the potential to affect the offshore subtidal sands and gravels feature are taken through to Part B of the assessment.