Proposed Northern Shelf Hake Fisheries Management Plan

Fisheries management

Management strategy for hake

In the JFS, the UK fisheries policy authorities lay out a shared ambition to deliver ‘world class, sustainable management of our sea fisheries and aquaculture across the UK, and to play our part in supporting delivery of this globally’. The JFS also states that ‘As part of being an independent coastal State, the fisheries policy authorities will work together to support a vibrant, profitable, and sustainable fishing and aquaculture sector supported by a healthy marine environment that is resilient to climate change’. These ambitions are managed in line with numerous domestic and international policy drivers, which oblige action to consider and mitigate for the wider adverse environmental impacts of fishing activity.

In UK waters fisheries are managed in line with UK fisheries legislation (such as the 2020 Act, UK and devolved administration secondary legislation) and licence conditions where appropriate.

Hake (in ICES areas 4, 6 and 7) is a stock covered by the Western Waters MAP (EUR 2019/472).^[9] It contains measures to restore and maintain fish stocks above levels capable of producing MSY, as well as requirements including those relating to the determination of fishing opportunities and to engagement with third countries to ensure the relevant stocks are managed in a sustainable manner in line with the MAP objectives.

The management of the hake fishery in the UK is carried out within this overarching context.

Hake is a jointly managed stock with the EU. Quota opportunities for the TAC areas (HKE/2AC4-C and HKE/571214) are determined within the UK and the EU bilateral. The approach to Coastal States negotiations follows the principles stated in the JFS.

Following the conclusion of annual negotiations with the EU, the UK’s share of the TAC is determined as fishing opportunities for British boats by the Secretary of State and published in a document under section 23 of the 2020 Act.^[10] Following this, the UK’s quota is apportioned between the four UK Fisheries Administrations in line with the UK Quota Management Rules^[11]. Each UK Fisheries Administration then allocates its share of apportioned quota to vessels/licences under their administration, in line with their quota management rules^[12] and Section 25 of the 2020 Act. Quotas are adaptable, for example, they may be transferred between the management groups which represent UK fishing vessels, or exchanged with the EU.

Work is ongoing between Coastal States to move the management of hake into trilateral management arrangements, which would mean that quota opportunities would be determined between the UK, EU and Norway. Coastal States involved in trilateral management of jointly managed stocks (including Northern Shelf haddock) have committed to working towards Long Term Management Plans (LTMP) for these stocks.^[13] LTMP can set a harvest control rule (HCR) for the stock in question, which, where appropriate, will build on those elements of an HCR set out within the Western Waters MAP and already included in ICES advice. An HCR for a quota stock is an agreed mechanism which defines an approach to TAC setting, based on target stock assessment outputs such as fishing mortality rate (F) and SSB. It may also include additional elements such as stability mechanisms and inter-annual quota flexibilities. By modelling short to long term impacts, a combination of these options will be selected by the negotiating parties, with an aim of ensuring stock health, maximising average yield, and reducing year-on-year quota fluctuations. This provides a more stable way of managing stocks in the long term.

The UK will continue to engage with other Coastal States to progress the commitment to having an LTMP for jointly managed stocks including hake and will seek to follow the approach in any future agreed LTMP to ensure long-term sustainability of the hake stock.

Current technical measures

All fishing activity in UK waters is managed through a range of technical measures. These technical measures were historically laid out in the form of technical conservation regulations written into the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) legislation through various EU delegated acts, which have now been retained into UK law following the UK’s exit from the EU and will be referred to as ‘assimilated law’. Following the UK’s exit from the EU, the UK Government and devolved administrations have various powers available to them to introduce new technical measures, for example by using licence conditions, or through secondary legislation under the 2020 Act or other relevant UK laws.

Technical measures tend to apply to specific groupings of vessels, or types of fish, and as such can be very similar. This means that the technical measures in place to support sustainable exploitation of the hake stock are likely to be similar to those in place to manage the other whitefish stocks, particularly when they are part of a mixed fishery.

Current technical measures^[14] in place to ensure sustainable exploitation of the hake stock include:

• Minimum Conservation References Size (MCRS) (which prevents targeting of undersized fish by ensuring that only fish above the MCRS can be sold for human consumption),
• Minimum mesh sizes and structure of fishing nets (which set a minimum standard intended to reduce catches of fish below the MCRS and generally make fishing operations more efficient and effective),
• The Landing Obligation^[15] which stipulates that all catches of quota species, which includes hake and includes all catches below MCRS must be landed and counted against quota unless exemptions apply.

Further detail regarding technical measures can be found on the UK Government’s Technical Conservation and Landing Obligation rules and regulations webpage.^[16]

As already noted within this FMP, despite the landing obligation being in place, there remains issues with illegal discarding of fish within the Northern Shelf hake fishery. Discarding figures produced by ICES show that for all vessels taking part in the Northern Shelf hake fishery (i.e. not limited to UK vessels and not just in UK waters), on a 5 year average between 2019-2023, out of a total catch of 376,632 tonnes, there was a corresponding discard tonnage of 26,881 tonnes. The discard rate ranged from 4.6% to 10%. These figures relate to ICES area(s) 4, 6, and 7, and divisions 3.a, 8.a–b, and 8.d, (Greater North Sea, Celtic Seas, and the northern Bay of Biscay).

Discarding issues are not specific to UK vessels, and will also apply to other non-UK vessels that catch the stock (both within and outwith UK waters). Steps are being taken across the UK to address issues with discarding, and actions relating to this are included within the actions section. This includes consideration of additional technical measures which might support fishing vessels to be more selective and avoid catching fish they wish to avoid. In Scotland this is under the Future Catching Policy programme of work.

The Northern Shelf hake stock may cause ‘choke’ issues. Choke refers to a situation that may occur when the quota opportunities for one stock in a mixed fishery may limit the ability of fishing vessels to maximum catches of another stock because the available quota is limited. Fisheries policy authorities take account of potential choke problems as part of the setting of quota opportunities.

Monitoring, control and enforcement

Fisheries regulations serve a range of purposes, including preventing actions which adversely impact sustainability of the marine environment. Fisheries policy authorities are focused on reducing the main risks for non-compliance with those regulations, for example relating to non or inaccurate reporting, use of illegal fishing gear and fishing in areas where activity is restricted.

Fisheries enforcement authorities (the Marine Directorate of the Scottish Government, the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA), the Marine Management Organisation (MMO) and Welsh Government in this instance) carry out enforcement that is intelligence-led, risk-based or is required by the UK’s international obligations. Enforcement of the respective regulations, domestic and international is in line with applicable guidelines for regulators. Across the UK there are a range of assets to support this, including compliance vessels, surveillance aircraft, the UK Fisheries Monitoring Centre and Marine Enforcement Officers conducting physical and office-based inspections throughout the chain of traceability.

Fishing vessels over 12 metres are required to have fully operational satellite Vessel Monitoring Systems (VMS), and electronic logbooks, enabling authorities to remotely monitor and control fishing activity and encourage higher compliance. VMS is also being rolled out across the under 12 metre fishing fleet and will form part of the monitoring and enforcement regime for all fishing vessels once this rollout is complete. Understanding and being able to monitor and control where fishing activity is taking place is an important part of fisheries management, particularly where area restrictions are in place. Accurate and robust locational data is also crucial for informing marine planning decisions. Remote Electronic Monitoring (REM) is also being rolled out in parts of the UK and for certain fishing vessels. REM can provide a higher degree of locational data, along with the use of sensors and cameras where appropriate which enable monitoring of fishing activity and can provide a richer dataset, for example, in relation to catches and bycatches. Specific actions relating to VMS and REM are contained within the actions section below.

UK fisheries authorities apply a fishing vessel licensing regime along with control measures throughout the whole chain of traceability from catching to sale. These measures include requirements to record catch details whilst at sea, the weight of catch landed, transport and takeover documents once landed and sales notes from registered buyers. This comprehensive data set enables fisheries authorities to effectively monitor fishing activity and compliance with national and local regulations.

These measures are not specific to hake fishing, but apply across the wider demersal fishing fleet. As a trilateral jointly managed stock it is important that this FMP reflects appropriate actions identified through the monitoring and control group.

Actions to enhance the current monitoring and enforcement approach are contained within ‘Actions’ under policy 3.

Environmental considerations

Conservation Advice

In addition to the requirements of the 2020 Act, FMPs are subject to legal duties and requirements relating to the protection of the natural environment arising from legislation such as the Habitats Regulations, the UK Marine Strategy Regulations 2010^[17], and the UK Marine Policy Statement^[18], the Environment Act 2021, Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009, and The Marine (Scotland) Act 2010.

Alongside these requirements, FMPs seek to support a range of other existing environmental policies that focus on, enhancing the health of our seas for future generations, restoring marine biodiversity, and tackling the causes and impacts of climate change.

To support the development of policies aimed at protecting the natural environment, Statutory Nature Conservation Bodies (SNCBs) provided conservation advice for the Scottish-led demersal FMPs. This advice was developed to cover all demersal FMPs. This approach was deemed appropriate given the similarities between the impacts associated with demersal gears used in these fisheries, but FMP specific issues are also considered in the advice. SNCBs have also provided separate conservation advice for individual demersal FMPs that cover English waters.

Conservation advice considered risks relating to Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), Priority Marine Features (PMFs) (Scottish waters only) and UK Marine Strategy descriptors of Good Environmental Status (GES). The advice provides a pragmatic steer on where the greatest concerns lie for interactions between the relevant fishing gear types and the designated features of MPAs, PMFs, and UK Marine Strategy descriptors.

The demersal FMP advice identified otter trawls, pair trawls, beam trawls, and demersal seines - collectively referred to as demersal trawls and seines - as well as static nets targeting monk/anglerfish and longlines targeting hake, as the most primary gear types for consideration. For the Northern Shelf hake FMP demersal trawls, seines, static nets and longlines are the most relevant gear types.

The SNCBs developed a ‘risk rating’ which is intended to help identify where the greatest impacts of fishing are likely to occur. A three-point scale has been used in the conservation advice: low, moderate and high risk. Activities with a moderate risk indicate that fisheries management authorities may need to take additional action to reduce the impact of fishing or, in some cases, improve the evidence base in order to more accurately assess risk in the future. For activities with a high rating it is generally suggested that action will be needed. The advice noted that more detailed information on gear types, location and fishing effort would improve the ability to assess environmental risks associated with each FMP and could alter some of the risk ratings presented.

The evidence and advice that has been provided by SNCBs underpins the proposed actions in the ‘policies’ section of this FMP, in particular Policy 4: Deliver wider sustainable management by taking steps to minimise the impact of hake fishery on the marine ecosystem. Policies 1 and 2 also directly support the delivery of improvements to the UK Marine Strategy descriptors relating to stock health. It is important to note that many of the actions that sit under these policies support work already underway.

It should also be recognised that the act of fishing in general, by its very nature, impacts on marine species and the marine environment in which fishing boats operate. However, understanding and, where possible, mitigating these risks and impacts, is an important part of effective fisheries management. In particular, the need to balance environmental action with consideration of the socio-economic benefits that fishing brings, is an important component of fisheries management.

MPAs and Priority Marine Features (PMFs) (Scottish waters only)

The conservation advice suggests that demersal fisheries, including fisheries for hake, have the potential to impact the designated features of MPAs and PMFs (in Scottish waters) in three ways:

• Through bycatch and entanglement of species that are designated features of MPA and PMFs (Scottish waters);
• Through removal of key prey species on which designated species depend;
• Through physical impacts on the seafloor resulting in habitat impacts.

For MPAs, risk relating to bycatch of mobile species (e.g. marine mammals and seabirds) in demersal trawls and seines is deemed to be moderate, with some species such as the basking shark and flapper skate as well as several deep-water fish species, including elasmobranchs, potentially at a greater risk. Gathering additional evidence on bycatch will help improve the evidence base and support improved management and actions relating to this are set out under the actions section.

The risk rating for bycatch in static nets and longlines is high. Some fishing for hake takes place with longlines and gillnets and would therefore be covered by this data requirement. Actions in relation to this are contained within the actions section.

Finally, there is also a moderate risk relating to removal of juvenile gadoids which are considered important prey species for designated species. More evidence is needed on impacts and to aid understanding.

For PMFs (Scottish waters), the risk rating for bycatch in mobile demersal gears is considered moderate. However, further evidence collection to better understand the issue could lower this risk in the future. A moderate risk rating also applies for bycatch of PMFs in longlines (this is reduced from the MPA assessment as the PMF list does not include birds). However, monitoring of commercial species bycatch, including sensitive fish and elasmobranch PMF species is currently limited and further research is needed to understand the risk to these species. This issue is considered as part of the actions section, which sets out current and planned additional evidence gathering and bycatch mitigation which includes positive actions already being undertaken by the fishing industry.

The risk rating for physical impacts to benthic and habitat PMFs from mobile demersal gears is considered moderate, due to the fact that these features will be offered some protection through the MPA management process. The advice notes that physical impacts from static demersal gears are likely to represent a lower risk to benthos but there may be areas where high intensity static fishing can have a moderate impact on PMF habitats and benthic features through physical disturbance.

This topic is explored further in Policy 4 ‘Deliver wider sustainable management by taking steps to minimise the impact of hake fishery on the marine ecosystem’. Some actions to address impacts are already underway such as the introduction of inshore VMS and increasing the frequency of VMS reporting; incentivising the use of selective fishing gear and fishing techniques that have a reduced impact on the environment; and the implementation of fisheries management measures being introduced to existing MPAs and for PMFs (Scottish waters).

UK Marine Strategy Descriptors

The UK Marine Strategy Regulations^[19] require management action to be taken to achieve or maintain GES in the UK marine area. The UK Marine Strategy Part Three: UK Programme of Measures outlines the actions and initiatives that are being taken across the UK to achieve this.

The conservation advice for demersal species focussed on the most relevant descriptors (D1 biodiversity, D3 commercial fish and shellfish, D4 food webs, D6 seafloor integrity and D10 marine litter). The advice also noted that additional consideration of screened-out descriptors may be required in the future and that the status of many of the current indicators are currently ‘uncertain’ or ‘unassessed’ and as the evidence base develops, the advice pertinent to those descriptors will need to be updated.

The conservation advice identified a number of risks from demersal fishing covering activities across the Demersal FMPs (not just those risks specific to fishing for Northern Shelf hake). This included: a moderate risk from demersal trawls and seines to achieving GES for marine mammals and seabirds through bycatch and prey reduction; a high risk to seafloor integrity due to benthic disturbance caused by mobile demersal fishing activities; and a moderate risk relating to marine litter. There is also a high risk from longlining to achieving GES for seabirds due to bycatch.

This topic is explored further as part of Policy 4 ‘Deliver wider sustainable management by taking steps to minimise the impact of hake fishery on the marine ecosystem’. Some of the actions to address impacts are already underway such as the work to introduce specific fisheries management measures where these are needed to protect specific marine features, for example by supporting improved accuracy of fisheries spatial data through the introduction of inshore VMS. Relevant longer term actions include collaborating across the UK to develop policy to reduce/eliminate sensitive marine species bycatch in the UK.

In relation to marine litter specifically, there is ongoing work with regard to the Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic (OSPAR) to implement the second Regional Action Plan on Marine Litter. This includes action to tackle marine litter from land and sea-based sources, including fishing.

Climate Change

The fisheries sector is facing several critical climate change issues and there is a need to collectively address these and co-develop solutions. The evidence base has made significant progress in the last decade with much greater focus on climate change impacts, adaptation^[20] and mitigation^[21] both from policy and industry.

The impacts of climate change are already apparent in the marine environment. We are already seeing warm water species increasing in abundance in UK waters while some cold water species have decreased, with these trends expected to continue in the future. For species such as hake it is likely that habitat suitability for the species will change, which may result in more favourable conditions for the species to live in UK waters in the longer term. The impacts in terms of biomass are not well understood, and are also dependent on other broader factors such as fishing pressure, and the trends in prey and predators for a given species.

The potential changes in species distribution can have consequences for commercial fisheries, and are likely to affect fishing behaviours, fishing quotas and will require adaptive management.

There is already evidence that climate change is having an impact on the distribution of the Northern Shelf hake stock. The overall hake stock has declined, and recent distribution maps indicate that the biomass in the North Sea has also declined although this is not clear whether the latter is related to changing distribution (i.e. contracting to traditional habitat) or to an overall reduction across all areas.

These changes are reflected within the advice produced by ICES, although further modelling work will be required in order to fully explore the longer term consequences and management actions needed.

Fishing can play a positive role in addressing climate change through providing high-quality protein with a lower carbon footprint. The UK policy authorities have different targets relating to climate change and are developing plans to support the drive towards net zero.

To support delivery of the climate change objective in the 2020 Act, the fisheries policy authorities will continue to take management decisions and negotiating positions that are evidence-based, setting fishing limits that are informed by the best available scientific advice, to support the ongoing resilience of fish stocks and the fishing fleets which rely on them.

FMPs set out our approach to increasing or maintaining sustainability of fish stocks and as additional evidence is developed, this will help fisheries managers to respond to changes in the status of stocks.

As found throughout the current literature^[22] the recorded changes in climate are already shifting species distribution, altering major life events such as spawning and hatching, and changing the productivity levels of marine organisms. As the distributions of commercial species shift geographically, fishing grounds increase or decrease in importance, while extreme weather events become more frequent, impact on the fishing industry is inevitable. The four UK administrations will work with the fishing industry to help them adapt to the impacts that climate change will have on commercially important species and will contribute to the collective efforts to mitigate the impacts fishing has on climate change.

Several studies have modelled large-scale and long-term future changes in fish abundance and distribution in response to climate change. However, a level of uncertainty remains, and it is currently proving difficult to produce robust forecasts. Commercial fish stocks are generally managed on a stock-by-stock basis through the yearly assessment of their exploitation and ecological status compared to reference points, such as the level of fishing pressure that corresponds to MSY. However, MSY and its associated fishing mortality rate FMSY are sensitive to both stock characteristics and climatic conditions^[23]. ICES makes the assumption that climate change is implicitly incorporated into the catch advice as the stock assessments and short-term forecasts are done using the most up-to-date data in order to estimate sustainable catch levels. Therefore, the data used encompasses changes in stock abundance and/or size at age, whether or not these are climate-driven, and it is assumed that climate change impacts do not need to be explicitly accounted for.

In addition, every five years (or so) ICES provide ecosystem overviews which are aimed at fisheries managers and include a climate change section which summarises the main climate change impacts to consider, although these are currently only at a high level.

The current ICES benchmarking^[24] and catch advice accounts for climate change to a limited degree, however, in the longer term the single-stock advice currently used in mixed fisheries may not be sufficient to enable managers to anticipate and respond to climate change impacts adequately. At ICES level, mixed fisheries scenarios are available, which explore fish stocks interactions and we would welcome moving to those for the West of Scotland.

Fisheries policy authorities are keen to understand this further as new information becomes available.

In addition to the impacts of climate change on fisheries, and the need to adapt to these changes, it is also important to consider climate change mitigation (and net zero targets) in relation to fishing. The fishing sector contributes to carbon emissions through vessel emissions and transport of exports. In addition, fishing practices that disturb the seabed (e.g., trawling) may impact on carbon stored in marine habitats (i.e., ‘blue carbon’).

The JFS highlights the need to protect and restore blue carbon habitats to support resilience to climate change. Marine sediments are an important blue carbon store and seabed disturbance could lead to release of carbon dioxide (CO2) back into the atmosphere.

Research is currently underway to better understand the fate of carbon disturbed through bottom contact fishing and quantify the scale of any atmospheric emissions. This work is beginning to highlight those areas of the seabed which support the highest densities of organic carbon and where the stores are most vulnerable to remineralisation and losses from disturbance. This evolving evidence could support future consideration of measures to reduce impacts of demersal fishing on blue carbon (e.g. through spatial or technical fisheries management measures).

The total emissions of the UK fishing fleet were estimated as 802 kt CO2e in 2019 which is equivalent to 0.18% of UK total territorial emissions, or 0.66% of UK domestic transport emissions^[25]. The fleet segments with the highest emissions are the Pelagic trawlers over 40m, North Sea Nephrops over 300kW, and within English waters, the South West beamers (over 250 kW). The carbon footprint (kg CO2e / kg fish) is highest in North Sea beam trawls over 300kW, with approximately 15kg CO2e per kg of fish landed^[26]

Addressing many of these challenges are beyond the scope of this FMP. Under the climate change objective in the 2020 Act and JFS, as well as national strategies such as Scotland’s Fisheries Management Strategy, the fisheries policy authorities will work in partnership with stakeholders to support fisheries in the drive to net zero and consider where and how we need to adapt our approaches to take account of the impacts of climate change.

The delivery of mitigation strategies for climate change is not within scope of this first iteration of this FMP. The FMP does, however, contain an objective to explore options for adapting fishery management to challenges presented by the changing climatic conditions. This FMP will be reviewed and adapted as research into climate change develops and new methods to address challenges from climate change are available.