Offshore Marine Protected Areas in Scottish waters: strategic environmental assessment - post adoption statement

4 The Findings of the SEA

4.1.1 The Environmental Report details the conclusions and recommendations of the assessment on the plan to implement management measures for offshore MPAs. The key themes drawn from the assessment are discussed below:

• The SEA findings concluded that the proposed measures would result in an overall (cumulative) beneficial impact for the overarching topic of biodiversity at all of the offshore MPAs apart from at three sites where the proposed measures are assessed as having a negligible neutral impact (Turbot Bank NCMPA^[31], Anton Dohrn Seamount NCMPA, and Solan Bank Reef SAC) and one site where the proposed measures are assessed as having no impact (Darwin Mounds SAC). The overall effects of the proposed measures were assessed as follows:
  • None (1 site): Darwin Mounds SAC;
  • Negligible neutral (3 sites): Turbot Bank NCMPA, Anton Dohrn Seamount NCMPA and Solan Bank Reef SAC;
  • Minor beneficial (10 sites): Braemar Pockmarks SAC, East of Gannet and Montrose Fields NCMPA, North-East Faroe-Shetland Channel NCMPA, Norwegian Boundary Sediment Plain NCMPA, Scanner Pockmark SAC, Geikie Slide and Hebridean Slope NCMPA, Stanton Banks SAC, West of Scotland NCMPA, West Shetland Shelf NCMPA and Wyville-Thomson Ridge SAC;
  • Moderate beneficial (5 sites): Central Fladen NCMPA, Faroe-Shetland Sponge Belt NCMPA, Pobie Bank Reef SAC, East Rockall Bank SAC and North West Rockall Bank SAC; and
  • Major beneficial (2 sites): Firth of Forth Banks Complex NCMPA and Barra Fan and Hebrides Terrace Seamount NCMPA.
• In sites where significant major or moderate beneficial impacts have been assessed, there is also potential for minor to moderate spill-over benefits to occur outside the sites depending on the scale of the existing fishing intensity that would be restricted and size of the protected area.
• Where management measures result in displacement of fishing effort, this could have negligible or minor adverse impacts on the biodiversity of the areas where the activity is displaced to. However, such displacement is likely to be to areas that are already fished and the impact of the additional fishing pressure in these areas is generally not considered to be significant as they will already have a community composition which reflects this fishing pressure. There is considered to be the potential for significant moderate adverse effects where the fishing activity is displaced a long distance and is more likely to result in new grounds opening up with associated adverse environmental effects.
• Adverse environmental effects associated with a potential increased fishing effort from other gear types that are not targeted by the proposed measures are not significant and generally negligible or minor in scale, depending on whether the existing targeted fishing activity can be displaced to nearby existing fishing grounds and also the scale of other gear types currently used within the protected site and surrounding area. Where fishing activity cannot be displaced locally and there is a moderate to high level of non-targeted gear type within or near to the site, the impacts are considered moderate.
• The increased protection brought about by the measures will provide potential future benefits to habitats and species as they will restrict new fisheries using the targeted gear type from setting up in the protected area.
• The proposed management measures for offshore MPAs together with existing management measures for inshore MPAs are considered to strengthen the overall protection of MPAs and will in turn result in an overall combined beneficial impact on biodiversity within Scotland’s waters.
• No significant adverse environmental effects were identified and therefore no mitigation or monitoring measures were proposed as part of the assessment process.

4.1.2 A key outcome from the SEA process was the reaffirmation that the proposed management measures offer an opportunity to protect species and habitats and provide wider environmental benefits. These principles are embedded in the plan to implement management measures for offshore MPAs and is a key requirement to fulfil a number of environmental and conservation objectives (Section 3).