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Bertie Armstrong |
INTRODUCING marine protected areas in the North Sea on the scale proposed today by environmental organisation WWF UK would have a "devastating" impact on the livelihoods of Scottish fishermen, a trade body has said.
According to the WWF UK report, published today, a network of marine reserves, that cover at least 30 per cent of the North Sea, is needed to help rebuild populations of many fish species, and protect the habitats upon which these, and other species depend.
In the report, 'A Return to Abundance: A Case for Marine Reserves in the North Sea', WWF-UK suggests a network of five experimental marine reserves that it says will improve the sustainability of fisheries, protect biodiversity, and help establish a healthy ecosystem.
Describing the proposals as "flawed", Bertie Armstrong, chief executive of the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation said the move would also affect the fish supply chain to the consumer.
“Scottish fishermen have been at the forefront of developing a wide variety of measures for the sustainable harvesting of fish stocks and we are now reaping the benefits of this," he said.
“These targeted and effective measures have included our support for the real-time closures of fishing areas to protect juvenile and spawning fish.
“Whilst we welcome constructive debate on fish conservation, we believe the proposals put forward by WFF are fundamentally flawed. The sweeping assumption is made that very large fixed marine protected areas would prove beneficial in the North Sea based on evidence gained from elsewhere. Such an assumption cannot safely be made, given the unique nature of the mixed fisheries in the North Sea.
“Their proposal also fails to take into account the fact that humans have been an integral part of the marine ecosystem since Medieval times and have their place in the sustainable harvesting of fish."
However, Giles Bartlett, Fisheries Policy Officer at WWF-UK said that under present fisheries management policies, species and habitats will continue to decline.
"It is vital that we rebuild resilience in North Sea ecosystems. WWF urges the Government to immediately implement a network of experimental marine reserves that can be used to strengthen fisheries management in the North Sea, and deliver lasting protection to the full spectrum of marine wildlife.”
The network of five trial marine reserves proposed by WWF-UK includes sites close to the Dogger Bank, the North Norfolk Sandbanks, and north of Shetland. WWF says these sites were chosen so as to target nursery and spawning areas, yet at the same time prevent fishing effort being redirected towards other ‘open’ areas, thus undermining the benefits of protection within the reserves.
It says the most intensively fished areas were excluded from the marine reserve network in order to minimise the impact on the fishing industry. If successfully implemented by the Government, these trial reserves will displace less than three per cent of UK demersal trawling and less than 11 per cent of UK beam trawling effort, WWF claims.
Mr Bartlett added: “The location of marine reserves needs to take into account several factors, and should not simply result from an emergency response to the latest crisis for a particular species. We are proposing a network that will represent and protect North Sea biodiversity and will displace as little fishing effort as possible. The establishment of marine reserves and a reduction in fishing effort should make it possible to recover some of the lost productivity of the North Sea, producing sustainability and long-term security for the fishing industry.”
The report recommends that the marine reserves exclude all types of fishing to avoid the problem of bycatch, and are closed off year-round to prevent a surge in fishing activity before or after the period of closure.
WWF is now urging the UK Government to establish a UK Marine Bill as soon as possible and fulfil its Fisheries 2027 pledge to set up and run within five years, a controlled trial for a Marine Protected Area to test its effectiveness for increasing fish stocks.
www.fishupdate.com is published by Special Publications. Special Publications also publish FISHupdate magazine, Fish Farmer, the Fish Industry Yearbook, the Scottish Seafood Processors Federation Diary, the Fish Farmer Handbook and a range of wallplanners.
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