Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) for Pelagic Fisheries Management Plans

6. Proposed Actions to Reduce Significant Negative Effects

Existing Negative Effects of Mackerel, Herring and Blue Whiting Fishing

This ER has acknowledged the existing negative environmental effects associated with the fishing activity which will be managed through the draft Pelagic FMPs. The actions proposed by the FMPs to reduce negative effects are set out below.

The known impacts of mackerel, herring and blue whiting fishing include bycatch of sensitive and/or non-target species, prey reduction, litter/ghost gear affecting habitats and species, vessel emissions on climate, and the impact on cultural heritage sites.

Biodiversity, Flora, Fauna, Water quality

The stocks covered by the five draft Pelagic FMPs are shared with coastal State partners. Fishing opportunities are managed by total allowable catches (TACs). These, and other joint management measures, are set through international negotiations guided by the best available scientific advice, balancing environmental, social, and economic factors. There is sufficient available scientific evidence for the relevant fisheries policy authorities to make annual MSY assessments for most pelagic stocks covered by these FMPs in UK waters. The relevant fisheries policy authorities do not have sufficient evidence to estimate MSY reference points for the West Coast of Scotland and Clyde herring fisheries covered by the West Coast of Scotland and Clyde Herring FMP, but advice and management follows the ICES MSY approach under their framework for Category 3 stocks. Therefore, this FMP sets out a path to improve the overall management approach by considering how the evidence base can be strengthened, with any subsequent action focussed on restoring (if required) and then maintaining the stock at sustainable levels. The policies and actions listed in the draft Pelagic FMPs will be part of the overall stock management strategy and are expected to contribute to the conservation of stocks and the wider environment.

The five draft Pelagic FMPs have considered advice from Statutory Nature Conservation Bodies (SNCBs) with respect to the impacts from mackerel, herring and blue whiting fishing activity on MPA features, the wider marine environment in relation to UK MS descriptors, as well as PMFs (Scottish waters).

The draft Pelagic FMPs have set out the following proposed actions to reduce those known negative effects as follows:

The MPA network (Appendix C) is protected through the existing MPA management process and HRA assessments by managing human activities such as fishing, to avoid likely significant effects on the environment. These activities are mainly controlled through the powers vested in the Scottish Ministers, IFCAs, the MMO, Welsh Government and DAERA.

The Scottish Government, Defra, the MMO, the Welsh Government and DAERA were involved in the development of the FMPs to ensure actions proposed through the FMPs are compatible with existing MPA management.

Before the Scottish Government/the Scottish Ministers, Defra, Welsh Ministers and DAERA implement any new management interventions proposed in the draft Pelagic FMPs, those interventions will be screened for likely significant effects on any European sites or European offshore marine sites that overlap with the geographical scope of the measure and, where necessary, a further appropriate assessment will be completed in accordance with the Conservation (Natural Habitats, & c.) Regulations 1994, the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2017 or the Conservation of Offshore Habitats and Species Regulations 2017. In accordance with the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009 (MaCAA), a Marine Conservation Zone (MCZ) Assessment, National Marine Plan assessment and MPAs impact assessments will also be completed before any new management measure is implemented that may significantly hinder the conservation objectives of an MCZ.

Additionally, Nature Conservation Marine Protected Areas (NCMPAs) are designated and protected by the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010 and Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009. An MPA assessment will be completed as required, to ensure impacts from any actions or measures are appropriately assessed and mitigated where necessary before being implemented.

The points above will make sure the impacts of mackerel, herring and blue whiting fishing activity, and the FMPs’ policies and actions, do not prevent our ability to meet the conservation objectives for MPA features. Thereby enabling us to achieve the legally binding target for MPA condition set out in the Environmental Targets (Marine Protected Areas) Regulations 2022.

The marine environment outside of MPAs but within the spatial boundaries of these FMPs may potentially be negatively impacted by fishing activities. SNCB advice commissioned by the Scottish Government’s Marine Directorate covering Scottish waters highlighted the risk of bycatch of mobile species (e.g. birds, mammals and fish) that are designated features of MPAs where they occur out with sites. While the risk to mobile species through bycatch from mobile pelagic gear is generally considered low, given the scale of these fisheries and significant gaps in the available evidence, the risk rating for bycatch in the pelagic fisheries was assessed as moderate. There is insufficient evidence for some fisheries regarding the extent of bycatch, highlighting the need to both enhance our understanding and take appropriate action.

The advice also identified a moderate risk of prey depletion to designated features of MPAs from these pelagic fisheries. Many of the pelagic species covered in the five pelagic FMPs are considered key prey for many of the designated fish, marine mammal, and seabird features in UK MPAs. However, the extent to which features rely on specific pelagic prey species is less clear.

SNCB advice covering English waters also identified moderate risk to the conservation status of designated mobile species from pelagic fishing due to bycatch and prey reduction. NRW’s advice, covering Welsh waters also identified high risks of bycatch of harbour porpoise in fixed and drift nets.

The advice acknowledged the lack of high-quality bycatch data. This severely restricts both the ability to draw firm conclusions on mobile bycatch risks on MPA features beyond site boundaries, and the ability to identify specific mitigation. Policy 4 specifically addresses bycatch of sensitive marine species in the fisheries. The actions set out as part of this policy aim to build our understanding whilst also taking appropriate action. Actions focus on improving fisheries data accuracy, continuing and improving current programs for mitigation and best practice, and supporting ongoing research and innovation to develop Ecosystem-based Approaches to management of these fisheries where required. If then implemented, these actions would be expected to have a positive effect on biodiversity and food webs.

The introduction and rollout of REM to UK pelagic fishing vessels will enhance the evidence base and could lead to a downgrading of the risk in the future.

The five draft Pelagic FMPs focus on achieving sustainable harvesting of mackerel, herring and blue whiting. This will support the achievement of GES for UK MS Descriptor 3 – Commercial fish and shellfish stocks. This will also benefit the wider marine environment and support improvements in the status of fish biodiversity (Descriptor 1) and marine food webs (Descriptor 4).

The risks identified in the SNCB advice largely mirror the risks associated with designated features of MPAs. While the risk from Pelagic fishing to achieving GES for marine mammals, seals and seabirds (D1 & D4) is generally considered low in relation to bycatch, there are still significant gaps in the available evidence, and prey reduction is identified as a moderate risk. As a result, the FMP risk rating is moderate, taking a precautionary approach into account.

The draft Pelagic FMPs propose to investigate the impact of both unwanted and protected species bycatch under Policy 4, and lists actions to continue and enhance monitoring of catch under Policy 3, which will help build the evidence base around prey reduction.

The risk rating for PMF bycatch and prey reduction in Pelagic fisheries is considered moderate

The draft Pelagic FMPs, under Policies 3 and 4, proposes actions aimed at improving data collection and understanding of bycatch, continuing and enhancing catch data collection, and supporting research on integrating Ecosystem-Based Approaches to Management of these stocks. These policies are expected to support management measures that will reduce the impact of these fisheries on Priority Marine Features (PMFs).

Climate Change

Vessel Emissions

The draft Pelagic FMPs acknowledge that more work is needed to fully understand how carbon emissions can be reduced in a sustainable way. The FMPs propose 2 actions as part of policy 6 aimed at collaboration for reducing environmental impacts of the fisheries (including CO₂ emissions) and improving the evidence base. This will be done by collaborating across Government, with industry and academic organisations to understand the current evidence gaps and latest innovations, to support the development of pathways towards Net Zero for the UK fishing fleet. The FMPs will support the fishery through national transition to low carbon fishing, contributing to UK Government commitments to Net Zero.

Climate change impacts on mackerel, herring and blue whiting stocks and fisheries

The five draft Pelagic FMP propose an action under Policy 6 to “Collaborate across the UK and internationally on further evidence and analysis to understand the impact of climate change on Pelagic FMP stocks and develop options for how the Pelagic FMP fisheries may adapt to climate change impacts in the future”. This action would build the evidence base for the relevant pelagic stocks, ensuring appropriate options for adaptive management can be identified. This evidence can be integrated into future iterations of the Pelagic FMPs.

Cultural Heritage

The draft Pelagic FMPs do not explicitly consider the potential impacts of fishing activity on marine cultural heritage.

Historic England have developed a range of options designed to manage negative interactions between commercial fishing and the historic marine environment. Marine Directorate, Defra, Welsh Government, and DAERA should work with agencies such as Historic Environment Scotland, Historic England, CADW and DfC Historic Environment Division to consider how measures that could protect the marine historic environment could be incorporated into fisheries management for future iterations. Considering appropriate measures to reduce negative interactions with marine heritage assets could strengthen the positive interactions between FMPs and cultural heritage and has the potential for the FMPs to contribute to having a positive effect on the current baseline.

Effects identified by this assessment

The assessment of the likely negative effects of the individual policies, measures and actions in section 5 identified a low risk of significant adverse effects on the environment from implementing individual policies and actions. Therefore, no changes to the proposed policies and actions are needed ahead of publishing the FMPs. Where appropriate, the policies and actions will be developed and implemented to mitigate any potential negative effects identified by the current assessment.

The likely negative effects will also be considered when developing monitoring activities as part of the implementation process (see section 8), to ensure that any negative effects of the FMP’s policies and actions individually or combined can be further reduced. Given the uncertainty as to the negative effects of implementing the individual policies and actions, monitoring changes to fishing activity resulting from the implementation of the FMPs will help identify any unintended consequences on the environment that could lead to significant negative environmental effects. Where likely unintended environmental consequences are identified, appropriate changes to management or mitigation can be implemented to reduce to any negative environmental effects developing.

General

The UK is committed to using marine resources sustainably and reducing the impacts of fishing on the marine environment to comply with its international and domestic obligations. The draft Pelagic FMPs seek to support these commitments by providing the tools (FMP policies and actions) to deliver the sustainable harvesting of stocks.

The range of environmental issues identified through this assessment have been considered by the draft Pelagic FMPs. The FMPs acknowledge that the evidence base is not sufficiently comprehensive at present to fully address many of the issues and therefore proposes a multi-step, iterative approach to deliver long-term sustainability through improving the evidence base. The FMPs should remain flexible to adapt their policies and actions as new evidence on potential impacts of mackerel, herring and blue whiting fishing emerge, particular in relation to climate change.

This ER considers that the FMPs have proposed all necessary actions to address existing issues and have appropriately considered how they will address potential issues arising from the implementation of the FMPs’ policies and actions. This ER has therefore not proposed any mitigations in addition to those already set out in the FMPs.