Fisheries Management Measures within Scottish Inshore Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) and Proposed Priority Marine Feature (PMF) Management Areas - High level Site Summary Details and Potential Impacts of Proposed Fisheries Management Measures

5. Environmental Impacts

The potential environmental impacts arising from the proposed measures have also been assessed for each site/area. The categories assessed were

a) Potential benefits to habitats and species within the sites/areas;

b) Potential spill-over benefits beyond site boundaries of the sites/areas;

c) Potential adverse effects resulting from the displacement of fishing and the likely intensification of activities in locations where they already occur; and

d) Potential adverse effects of increased fishing effort from other gear types that are not be targeted by the proposed fisheries management measures.

For each category above an environmental outcome, and the scale of that outcome, is provided. Outcomes are categorised as neutral, beneficial, or adverse. The scale of each outcome is then categorised as major, moderate, minor, negligible, or none.

The full environmental assessment is available with the Strategic Environmental Assessment document.