Implications of MPAs for the fishing industry Wouter van Broekhoven wvanbroekhoven@visned.nl Science and policy advisor, VisNed (Dutch demersal fisheries association) European Parliament Fisheries Committee hearing on: MARINE PROTECTED AREAS (MPAS):VALUING MARINE BIODIVERSITY AND ECOSYSTEMS FOR THE BLUE ECONOMY Brussels, 9 November 2016
North Sea provides 1.8m tonnes = approx. 2 billion/year
Presentation outline 1. MPA considerations purpose, limitations 2. Quantifying impact on fishing industry
Conservation commercial fish stocks Common Fisheries Policy conservation vulnerable and spatially defined features MPAs
MPAs & vulnerable features Cleaver Bank (Aquasense/PeriPlus)
Dynamic habitats Dynamic habitat is prevalent in North Sea (this colour = sand) ICES 2016, WKFBI report, ACOM46 Aquasense / Periplus
Dynamic habitats biological community adapted to physical disturbance UK NL
Seafloor integrity & trawling frequency Relative benthic community biomass (Biomas / K) Target Initial Mortality Recovery Time back to target level after 2.3 y ICES 2016, WKFBI report, ACOM46
Seafloor integrity & trawling frequency 2.17 Trawling intensity (frequency per year) max. 2.17 trawls per year maintains target integrity ICES 2016, WKFBI report, ACOM46
Fishing effort clustering & unfished area 90% of effort in less than 50% of area 37% of North Sea seafloor unfished in study period 2010-2012 Swept area / yr > 0 0.1 0.1 0.5 0.5 1 1 10 > 10 Eigaard et al. 2016 (in press)
Displacement of fishing effort Mind the: trade-off between recovery in the closed areas and additional trawling effects in the open areas 1 Assess the net ecological effects. Literature reviews in: 1. Hiddink et al., 2006 2. Sweeting & Polunin, 2005 3. IMARES report C170/15 4. Caveen et al., 2014
Alternatives for impact reduction
Spatial claims But.. can we quantify this?
Tool 1: value maps Netherlands fleet landings in area UK 2011 2012 2013 NL EUR 3.6m 4.1m 3.4m
Tool 2: Individual Stress Level Analysis (ISLA) Test of method: Future Natura 2000 areas and wind farms NL, DE, DK Scenarios: 6 (combinations of these areas) Fleets: NL, DK, DE Year: 2015 Schulze et al. 2010 (COEXIST)
Tool 2: Individual Stress Level Analysis (ISLA) Impacts differ between scenarios Impacts differ between fleets Scenario: A B C D E F Schulze et al. 2016 (pers.comm.)
Tool 2: Individual Stress Level Analysis (ISLA) Schulze et al. 2010 (COEXIST) Tool can even be used to compare individual fishing ports:
Take-home messages 1. Fishing effort is highly clustered in space and large areas are unfished what? why? how? 2. Conservation objective appropriate instrument MPA other 3. Quantitative toolbox: seafloor integrity as a function of trawling frequency 4. Displacement of fishing effort: Assess net ecological effect (inside & outside) Avoid closing intensively fished areas 5. Use the tools to quantify impacts on fleets (segments) to inform policy trade-offs.
Thank you for listening Implications of MPAs for the fishing industry Wouter van Broekhoven wvanbroekhoven@visned.nl Science and policy advisor, VisNed (Dutch demersal fisheries association) European Parliament Fisheries Committee hearing on: MARINE PROTECTED AREAS (MPAS):VALUING MARINE BIODIVERSITY AND ECOSYSTEMS FOR THE BLUE ECONOMY Brussels, 9 November 2016
References www.abpmer.co.uk/experience/fisheries-and-aquaculture-experience/assessing-fisheriesmpas/ Caveen A, Polunin NVC, Gray T, Marguerite Stead S (2014) The controversy over Marine Protected Areas Science meets policy. Springer. Eigaard OR, Bastardie F, et al (in press) ICES Journal of Marine Science. The footprint of bottom trawling in European waters: distribution, intensity, and seabed integrity. Schulze T, Schulte K, Hamon K (2012) Report on economic analysis in coastal fisheries on the basis of revenue for individual profession and fishing trips. COEXIST Project Deliverable D3.2. Slijkerman D, Tamis J (2015) Fisheries displacement effects related to closed areas : a literature review of relevant aspects. IMARES report C170/15. Sweeting C, Polunin NVC (2005) Marine protected areas for management of temperate North Atlantic fisheries: lessons learned in MPA use for sustainable fisheries exploitation and stock recovery. Report to Defra, London