Demersal Fisheries Management Plans proposals: strategic environmental assessment - environmental report

1. Introduction

Fisheries Management Plans – context and background

Marine fish stocks are a public resource, a valuable natural asset and important components of marine ecosystems. Managing fishing activity so that we harvest our stocks within sustainable limits will ensure our fishing communities, the seafood supply chain and wider society continue to benefit from our natural assets, now and into the future.

The Joint Fisheries Statement (JFS) as amended, as required by the UK Fisheries Act 2020, sets out how the UK fisheries authorities (Defra, Scottish Government, Welsh Government and the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs in Northern Ireland) will prepare and publish 43 Fisheries Management Plans (FMPs) by 2028, to manage fishing activity so the harvesting of fish stocks remains within sustainable levels. The Scottish Government is the coordinating authority for 21 FMPs with a delivery date of end of 2026. Of the 21 FMPs, 11 are for demersal fish stocks.

Sustainable fisheries protect stocks and the wider environment whilst delivering social and economic benefits for present and future generations. Delivering sustainable fisheries will involve balancing the environmental, social and economic aspects of fisheries. Both the short-term and the long-term impacts of decisions to manage fishing activity to protect stocks, the marine environment and on the fishing industry will be considered. Any short-term decisions to favour social or economic benefit should not significantly compromise the long-term health of the stocks and marine environment that underpin these societal and cultural benefits of fishing. These decisions should recognise the cultural importance of fishing through maintaining and, where possible, strengthening coastal communities and livelihoods alongside the requirement for fish stocks to reach and maintain sustainable levels.

UK fisheries policy authorities identified 43 FMPs in the JFS. A timetable for the preparation and publication of the FMPs can be found in Annex A of the JFS (amended December 2024) and summarised on Gov.UK here. Following consultation, an updated version of Annex A of the JFS was published in December 2024, introducing changes to the publication dates and technical details of several FMPs.

All FMPs must contain the information set out in Section 6 of the Fisheries Act 2020. In summary, an FMP must specify the relevant authority; stock or stocks, type of fishing and geographical area to which the plan relates; the status of the stocks; policies and actions to harvest within sustainable limits; and the indicators to be used to monitor the effectiveness of the plan.

FMPs must specify whether there is sufficient evidence to assess a stock’s Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY). Where there is insufficient evidence, the FMP must specify policies for maintaining or increasing levels of the stock, and the steps (if any) that the relevant authority or authorities propose to take to obtain the scientific evidence necessary to enable an assessment of a stock’s MSY. If no steps are proposed, the FMP will explain the reasons for that, and how the precautionary approach to fisheries management will be applied so fish are harvested within sustainable limits.

Through managing fishing activity within sustainable limits, FMPs will contribute to the fisheries objectives set out in section 1 of the Fisheries Act 2020. The scope of an FMP may be extended to consider wider fisheries management issues related to environmental, social or economic matters. How FMPs consider wider fisheries management issues will be determined at the individual FMP level, appropriate to the stock(s), fishery and geographic area within the remit of the FMP.

The Fisheries Act 2020 requires FMPs to report their effectiveness every three years and be reviewed at least every six years. FMPs will evolve as our understanding and evidence base develops through their implementation. Some FMPs will progressively address a wider range of fisheries management issues as they evolve through an iterative approach over time.

FMPs will contain a range of policies and fisheries management measures/interventions whose detail will vary depending on the evidence available to support their implementation. Some policies and measures may only indicate future action and will develop over time as the plan’s evidence progresses through each iteration.

FMPs will adopt an ecosystem-based approach to fisheries management to help deliver environmental, social and economic benefits beyond those accrued from just achieving the sustainable harvesting of stocks.

Policies and actions proposed by an FMP will apply to all vessels (UK and non-UK vessels) fishing in the area covered by the plan.

Delivering Sustainable Management of Fisheries and FMPs

Fisheries rely on the ecosystems in which they operate to support healthy stocks. These ecosystems can be compromised by human-induced pressures, including pollution, marine litter and unsustainable exploitation of marine resources. This pressure includes the impact of fish population levels on the processes and functioning of the wider ecosystem, for example the removal of prey species impacts the status of top predators.

Long-term, sustainable, and profitable fisheries require active management to avoid, reduce or mitigate any adverse impacts of fishing activity on ecosystem functioning, ecosystem resilience, or environmental threats such as climate change.

Available fishery data and advice will help determine the targets and catch limits applied to each stock. Where possible, these limits would include the MSY for data-rich stocks where biomass fluctuations can be tracked. Alternative proxies for harvest limits, the precautionary approach, or a combination of both are required for more data-limited stocks, where it is only possible to detect biomass fluctuations.

Not all stocks currently have sufficient evidence to establish MSY, or proxy, reference points and limits. It is not scientifically feasible or economically viable to collect such evidence for some species. In these cases, FMPs must include the steps, or reasons for not taking steps, national fisheries authorities will take to ensure stocks are harvested within sustainable limits.

FMPs will recognise the importance of the sustainable use and conservation of our marine natural assets and the ecosystem services they provide when setting out policies to manage fishing activity. FMPs will make use of the best available scientific advice, be subject to scientific evaluation, and consider the environmental risks associated with the fishing activity. The plans will use a risk-based approach to identifying appropriate and proportionate mitigation for its environmental impact.

FMPs will contribute to achieving Good Environmental Status (GES) under the UK Marine Strategy (UK MS). In addition to improving or maintaining the status of commercial stocks, plans can include actions focused on reducing the risks and/or pressures from fishing activity to other ecosystem components that may prevent achieving GES.

Managing fishing activity within sustainable limits through FMPs will directly contribute to securing the continued availability of seafood products as an important food source within the UK food supply chain.

Scope of the FMPs

Stocks and areas covered by the Whitefish/Demersal FMPs are summarised in Table 1 (Annex 1). The Marine Directorate-led Whitefish/Demersal FMPs contain the following eight species:

• cod (Gadus morhua),
• whiting (Merlangius merlangus),
• haddock (Melanogrammus aeglefinus),
• saithe (Pollachius virens),
• hake (Merluccius merluccius),
• monk (Lophius piscatorius and Lophius budegassa),
• megrim (Lepidorhombus whiffiagonis) and
• ling (Molva molva)

The draft Whitefish/Demersal FMPs will apply to all areas in Scottish waters^[1], English waters^[2], Northern Irish waters^[3] and Welsh waters^[4] where fishing activity for the above given species takes place. The relevant regions are summarised in Table 1. A breakdown of the relevant fishing gears for each FMP is also provided in Table 1.

For Welsh waters, only the Northern Shelf Hake FMP is of particular interest for the purpose of this SEA and it should be noted that there is no targeted fishery for hake in Wales. Hake is occasionally caught as bycatch as part of demersal mixed fisheries which are covered by other forthcoming FMPs.

Draft Whitefish/Demersal FMPs’ Policies and Actions

The overall vision for the demersal whitefish stock FMPs is that the fisheries they cover are managed sustainably, to help ensure that stocks are maintained above biomass levels capable of producing MSY and highlights areas that could lead to refinements to management approaches in the future. For some stocks which are not currently being fished at sustainable levels, actions are set out to improve the management approach.

The policies and actions set out in the FMPs suggest how this could be achieved in a way that is consistent with, and supportive of, the wider achievement of the fisheries objectives set out in the 2020 Act, and the policies contained within the JFS.

To ensure effective management of the fisheries in UK waters, the FMPs identify policies focussed on domestic and international management priorities. These policies are subject to the consideration of the consultation and will be prioritised appropriately to ensure realistic and measurable outputs. They were drafted to meet the requirements of section 6(3) of the 2020 Act (policies 1 and 2) and policies set out in the JFS (policies 3, 4, 5 and 6). For each policy, the plan sets out:

• a rationale;
• ongoing, short and longer term actions; and
• how the actions support delivery of the fisheries objectives.

Table 2 in Annex 1 provides a summary of the policies and actions for the Whitefish/Demersal FMPs. Policies 1 and 2 have been split to reflect different approaches for the Northern Shelf Ling FMP and the Atlantic Cod FMP as these stocks require further evidence collation to support sustainable management.

The six policies for the Whitefish/Demersal FMPs are to:

Policy 1a: Harvest the stocks sustainably, with biomass [restored and] maintained above the level capable of producing MSY;

Harvest the Northern Shelf cod stock sustainably, contributing to restoring and maintaining the biomass above the level capable of producing MSY, taking decisions that reflect the status and uncertainty of vulnerable substocks (Northern Shelf Cod only).

Policy 1b: Continue to manage [the relevant FMP stock] using existing tools to maintain stock levels;

Policy 2a: Use the best-available scientific evidence to support management decisions relating to the setting of sustainable fishing opportunities;

Policy 2b: [Take action in partnership with the EU to] improve the evidence base underpinning the stock, in order to support sustainable harvesting [of the relevant FMP stock], with biomass maintained above the level capable of producing MSY;

Policy 3: Address discarding issues in the respective fishery and ensure that where possible all catches are counted against quotas;

Policy 4: Deliver wider sustainable management by taking steps to minimise the impact of [vessels fishing in the Rockall area which take a bycatch of cod] the demersal fisheries on the marine ecosystem;

Policy 5: Support fishing businesses to continue to deliver socio-economic and cultural benefits for communities;

Policy 6: Reduce the impact of fishing on climate change and support the fishing industry to adapt to the impacts of climate change.

There are some slight differences in the actions across the suite of FMPs. These are highlighted in Table 5 in the same Annex (Annex 1).