Natural England Joint Publication JP026 Marine Conservation Zones Scientific advice on proposed MCZs for highly mobile species: Tranche 3 pre-consultation advice overview report First published 8th June 2018 www.gov.uk/natural-england Further information Natural England evidence can be downloaded from our Access to Evidence Catalogue. For more information about Natural England and our work see Gov.UK. For any queries contact the Natural England Enquiry Service on 0300 060 3900 or e-mail [email protected] . Copyright This report is published by Natural England under the Open Government Licence - OGLv3.0 for public sector information. You are encouraged to use, and reuse, information subject to certain conditions. For details of the licence visit Copyright. Natural England photographs are only available for non-commercial purposes. If any other information such as maps or data cannot be used commercially this will be made clear within the report. ISBN 978-1-78354-491-2 © Natural England and other parties 2018 Marine Conservation Zones Scientific advice on proposed MCZs for highly mobile species: Tranche 3 pre-consultation advice overview report June 2018 Scientific advice on proposed MCZs for highly mobile species – pre-consultation advice overview report June 2018 Acknowledgements The following JNCC & Natural England staff were involved in the production of this report: Declan Tobin, Eunice Pinn, Kerstin Kober, Louisa Jones, Ollie Payne, Peter Chaniotis, Hannah Carr, Alice Cornthwaite, Alice Doyle, Edward Mayhew, Louisa Knights, Heidi Pardoe, Alex Baker, Richard Caldow, Joana Smith, Alex Banks, Bart Donato, Helen Rowell, Mike Meadows, Claire Tancell, Randolph Velterop, Christine Singfield, Ruth Porter, Mel Parker, Stephanie Ashman, Helena Robson, Zoe Gorvett, Trudy Russell, Kate Owen, Georgina Evans, Laurence Browning, Mark Johnston, Katie Finkill-Coombs, Lisa Jenner, Sangeeta McNair, Andrew Knights, Gavin Black and Elaine Young. Review and quality assurance of the report were carried out by Jon Davies for JNCC and Angela Moffat, Samantha King, Tim Hill and Jonathan Burney for Natural England. The members of JNCC’s non-executive Marine Protected Areas Sub-Group provided an independent technical review of the contents of this report. The report contents were also reviewed by Natural England’s Senior Leadership Team. JNCC and Natural England acknowledge the input of all these people in the production of this report. Produced by JNCC & Natural England Page 2 Scientific advice on proposed MCZs for highly mobile species – pre-consultation advice overview report June 2018 Purpose of this report The UK Government’s Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) asked the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) and Natural England to provide further formal pre-consultation advice on 12 draft Marine Conservation Zones (MCZs) for highly mobile species that have been proposed by third-parties as part of the third tranche of MCZ designations. This pre-consultation advice report provides an overview of the process followed by JNCC and Natural England to review proposals for highly mobile species MCZ submitted by third-parties. Our formal pre- consultation advice is set out in Section 2 (our initial assessment of proposals against the principles identified for highly mobile species MCZs) and our further formal pre-consultation advice in Section 3. This report is supplemented by individual site assessments and site summaries that provide an overview of the scientific case for designation of the 12 highly mobile species MCZ proposals for which Defra have requested further formal pre-consultation advice. Executive Summary Marine Conservation Zones (MCZs) are a form of Marine Protected Area (MPA) created under the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009 (HM Government, 2009) to conserve marine animals, plants and their habitats, together with areas of seabed important for their geomorphological and/or geological features. By conserving these features, MCZs join other types of MPAs with the aim of creating an ecologically coherent and well managed network of MPAs that make a contribution to completing the Blue Belt. Since 2013, Defra have designated 50 MCZs following a comprehensive stakeholder led process, scientific review and public consultation. During this Parliament, Defra aim to designate a further tranche of MCZs, with the possibility of including MCZs proposed by third-parties for the conservation of highly mobile species. MCZs designated to conserve highly mobile species must clearly be able to contribute to the long-term viability of protected populations and, where necessary, help recover those populations. In 2016, third-parties were asked by Defra to propose highly mobile species for protection within MCZs where there is clear evidence that their conservation will benefit from site-based protection measures. To support third-parties in preparing submissions for highly mobile species MCZs, JNCC and Natural England jointly produced guidance setting out the principles that third-parties should follow in preparing their submissions (Natural England and JNCC, 2016a). These principles draw on the MCZ network principles set out in the Ecological Network Guidance (Natural England and JNCC, 2010), as well as experience in selecting Special Protection Areas and Special Areas of Conservation for highly mobile species under the EC Wild Birds (European Commission, 1979) and EC Habitats Directives (European Commission 1992) respectively. Four principles were identified as being important for the identification of MCZs for highly mobile species: Ecological significance – is the area considered to be of critical importance to the life history of the highly mobile species, e.g. for feeding or breeding behaviours? Persistence – supporting data should demonstrate long-term persistence (allowing for natural seasonal and inter-annual variation) of highly mobile species at a greater than average density by comparison to the wider sea area. Site size and delineation – MCZs should be large enough to maintain the supporting functions that a highly mobile species requires in a given location. This includes any supporting habitats, oceanographic processes, geological/geomorphological features or species important to the conservation of a given highly mobile species in the same locality are also considered in the context of MCZ size and extent. Produced by JNCC & Natural England Page 3 Scientific advice on proposed MCZs for highly mobile species – pre-consultation advice overview report June 2018 Appropriateness of management - The particular value of site-based protection measures to the conservation of the species must be clear in an MCZ proposal to conserve a highly mobile species. For example, the proposal should demonstrate how a site-based measure compares to wider (possibly already existing) measures. Site-based measures may be particularly useful where localised threats are present that are not adequately considered by wider existing measures. In August 2016, JNCC and Natural England received 21 highly mobile species MCZ submissions from Defra that were prepared by third-parties. Defra requested that JNCC and Natural England undertake a review of the degree to which the principles outlined in Natural England and JNCC (2016a) (and summarised above) are considered to be met according to the process set out in Annex 3 for 17 of these submissions. The four proposals not assessed were for smelt (Osmerus eperlanus) in the Alde Ore, Medway, Thames and Wyre Lune estuaries because these areas were already under consideration for smelt as part of the main Tranche 3 MCZ work programme. Natural England have provided advice to Defra on smelt as a feature of these four sites and have also applied the process set out below in order to assess the sites against the four highly mobile species principles. Of the 17 proposals JNCC and Natural England assessed, Defra requested further formal pre- consultation advice on 10 (and agreed that the Dorset composite proposals should thereon be considered as 3 separate proposals called Poole Rocks, Southbourne Rough and Purbeck), namely all those proposals (including their specific features) that sufficiently met the four principles i.e. scored moderate or high (or had the potential to score moderate or high with modest additional analysis of readily available evidence) across all four principles as set out in Natural England and JNCC (2016a). Due to the splitting of the Dorset composite proposal into 3 separate proposals, there were then 12 proposals to provide further formal pre-consultation advice on. Table 1 provides an overview of these MCZ proposals and their proposed protected feature(s). The locations of these 12 MCZ proposals for highly mobile species are illustrated in Figure 1. Table 5 provides a summary of our further formal pre- consultation advice on these 12 proposals, including the General Management Approach (GMA). The present report provides an overview of the process followed by JNCC and Natural England to review proposals for highly mobile species MCZ submitted by third-parties. This report is supplemented by individual site assessments (provided separately) that provide an overview of the scientific case for designation concerning the 12 highly mobile species MCZ proposals for which Defra have requested further formal pre-consultation advice. Table 1. MCZ proposals for highly mobile species considered to sufficiently meet the principles set out in Natural England and JNCC (2016a).