North Western Waters Fisheries Ecosystem Plan
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Making the European Fisheries Ecosystem Plan Operational NORTH WESTERN WATERS FISHERIES ECOSYSTEM PLAN: WORK PACKAGE 7 REPORT EC FP7 PROJECT # 212881 “....we need to make sustainability our primary goal; we need to base our management decisions strictly on science; we need to adopt an ecosystem approach that is geographically specified, adaptive and capable of balancing diverse social objectives....forgive me for borrowing a somewhat trite old saying: when the wind of change is blowing, some build walls, others build windmills.” Maria Damanaki European Commissioner for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Brussels, 16th November 2010 Please cite as: Bloomfield, H., Nolan, C., Le Quesne, W.J.F., Raakjær, J., Christensen, A.S., Aanesen, M., Armstrong, C., Piet, G.J. & Frid, C. (2011) Fisheries Ecosystem Plan: North Western Waters. Making the European Fisheries Ecosystem Plan Operation (MEFEPO): Work Package 7 Report. http://www.liv.ac.uk/mefepo/reports-and-outputs/wp7/ EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Science based fisheries management developed late in the 19th century with a narrow focus on the dynamics of fish stocks. Now, early in the 21st century fisheries management is becoming integrated into wider environmental management. The July 2011 Green Paper on the Reform of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) identified the need reform European fisheries management and advocated the application of an Ecosystem Based Fisheries Management (EBFM) approach to deliver ecological, social and economic sustainability, stated an intention to move towards a longer term approach to fisheries management, and made commitments to greater stakeholder involvement in management. The Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) defines environmental objectives for European seas, based on sustainable utilisation of healthy marine ecosystems in support of sustainable development, and the Integrated Maritime Policy requires that individual sectors (e.g. fisheries) need to support MSFD objectives. The Making the European Fisheries Ecosystem Plan Operational (MEFEPO) project was conceived to further the development of a framework, and the supporting evidence base (natural and social science), required to integrate the MSFD objectives within a reformed CFP in the context of sustainable ecosystem based fisheries management (EBFM). Fisheries Ecosystem Plans (FEPs) have been developed as a tool to assist managers and stakeholders simultaneously consider the ecological, social and economic implications of management decisions within a framework supporting EBFM. The aim of FEPs is to provide managers with a strategic rather than prescriptive plan for the adoption of EBFM. Through structured interaction with stakeholders, the MEFEPO project developed this FEP for the North Western Waters (NWW) Regional Advisory Council area. Ecosystem impacts of fishing activities on the North Western Waters As a first step towards the development of a FEP for the NWW we assessed to what extent the ecological policy objectives for this region were compromised by fishing. For this we focussed on the four MSFD descriptors that were considered to be affected by fishing: (1) biodiversity, (3) commercial fish and shellfish, (4) foodweb and (6) seafloor integrity and attempted to assess their current status using the most appropriate available indicators. The selected indicators were applied to the NWW Regional Advisory Council (RAC) region to (i) trial combined simultaneous assessment of environmental status across a large multi-national region to examine the practicality of operationally implementing the approach; and to (ii) attempt to assess the current status of the NWW RAC region in relation to the impacts of fishing on GES. The two survey based indicators, the conservation status (biodiversity) and large fish indicators (food webs), could be applied across this region, and the status of commercial stocks indicator (commercial fish and shellfish) could be applied to the extent that stock assessments are available. Applying the indicator of the proportion of area not impacted by mobile bottom gears (seafloor integrity) proved problematic as VMS data is required from individual nation states and national datasets were not made available to all partners. Whilst there are a number of limitations in terms of data availability, and lack of guidance on how to combine assessments within a descriptor and across descriptors, this preliminary assessment concluded that GES is currently compromised within the NWW RAC region by fishing activities. Thus i there is a clear requirement for Fisheries Ecosystem Plans (FEPs) to assist in working towards GES for the NWW region. Supporting governance structure The transition to EBFM requires appropriate institutional structures. Through structured interaction with stakeholders, the MEFEPO project developed a proposed institutional framework based on a decentralised management structure with decision-making power devolved to regional cooperating groups of Member States (MS), supported by enhanced (Regional) Advisory Councils (ACs) with appropriate scientific support, and a more collaborative approach between MS, ACs and scientists to develop management plans. Whilst the institutional structure and formal distribution of powers remains largely unchanged, this model would: enhance stakeholders’ participation in management at the regional scale; facilitate stakeholder involvement in the development of management objectives and appropriate descriptors for all three pillars, and in the evaluation of management strategies; and thus give greater credibility to the management process and foster stakeholder support for management decisions. Management strategy evaluation approach Central to the development of the FEP is a management strategy evaluation matrix, a management support tool that allows simultaneous consideration of the potential impacts of different combinations of management measures on the ecological, social and economic status of the system. ‘Descriptors’ for the ecological, social and economic status of the fisheries were developed and utilised within the matrix. Ecological descriptors were drawn directly from the MSFD and were selected at a MEFEPO stakeholder workshop as those most impacted by fishing activities (biodiversity, commercial fish, food-webs and seafloor integrity). Social and economic descriptors were defined to monitor the main aspects of fishing contributing to the economic and social wellbeing of society, in particular coastal communities. Economic descriptors focus on fishers’ ability to maximise economic efficiency of fishing operations (efficiency) and minimising fluctuations in harvesting possibilities over time (stability). Social descriptors monitor employment opportunities within the catching sector (community viability) and securing catch potential for human consumption (food security). The potential performance of a limited suite of case-study specific management strategies was evaluated against these descriptors; management strategies comprised of “business as usual” (BAU) and alternative strategies, applying different management tools. Four cases study fisheries were used as examples of matrix application within the North Western Waters (NWW) region: (1) Nephrops, (2) scallops, (3) northern hake, and mackerel. The case study fisheries examined should be seen as heuristic examples and not definitive assessments of the potential effects of different management strategies. The case study fisheries examined should be seen as heuristic examples and not definitive assessments of the potential effects of different management strategies. Matrices were completed based on best available evidence (modelled, empirical and expert judgment), which for the NWW case studies predominantly focussed on expert judgement and empirical data due to low accessibility/availability of quantitative data. ii Case study fisheries Consideration of alternative management strategies for case study fisheries indicated that there was scope to improve the status of ecological descriptors without significant deterioration in social and economic descriptors. For example, in the Nephrops fishery, an increase in the use of creels and associated reduction in the use of trawls was predicted to provide improvement in the status of all ecological descriptors. The strategy was also predicted to provide improvement in terms of stability of catches and food security, due to improvement in commercial stocks. However, some of the alternative management strategies were predicted to have considerable negative effects on the status of social and economic descriptors. For example, the introduction of improved fishing technology and a total allowable catch (TAC) within the scallop fishery was predicted to yield benefits in terms of ecological status but significant negative social and economic effects due to a “race to fish”, potential increased vessels numbers, and inefficient fishing activities. The outcomes of these management strategy evaluations for the North Western Waters case studies show that there is scope for EBFM in order to achieve (or at least progress towards achieving) the ecological policy objectives as stated in the MSFD. Crucially, application of the matrix approach demonstrated the complexity of interconnections among descriptors, and highlighted that trade-offs among objectives are required. Due to the nature of the trade-offs, it may not be possible to satisfy all stakeholder groups or objectives simultaneously. Steps required for implementation of EBFM The MEFEPO