Marine Spatial Prioritisation

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Page review/updated 04/12/2024

(Content of page last updated: 26th July 2024)

D&S IFCA has received funding from Defra to assist with the delivery of three key national workstreams, including Marine Spatial Prioritisation. As part of the Marine Spatial Prioritisation workstream, D&S IFCA reviews and responds to consultations on Marine Licence Applications (MLAs), environmental permits and other development consents.

Through this work, D&S IFCA seeks to ensure that developers minimise, mitigate or compensate for their impacts on fish and designated habitats, and to ensure that the needs of existing users of the sea (including fishing, aquaculture and the recreational sector) are accounted for.

In a recent meeting with Defra officials (April 2024), D&S IFCA and representatives from other IFCAs demonstrated the complexity and amount of the work associated with the Marine Spatial Prioritisation workstream, and the need for IFCAs to continue to engage meaningfully with this work. An interactive presentation on this topic will be given at a meeting of D&S IFCA’s Authority in September 2024 and will be available on D&S IFCA’s website shortly afterwards.

Published consultation responses, going back several years, can be viewed in D&S IFCA’s Resource Library (H – Marine Environment Matters). This display page highlights more recent work, including ongoing work associated with Hinkley Point C in Somerset.

Hinkley Point C

On 29th February 2024, D&S IFCA responded to NNB (EDF)’s public consultation to outline its concerns about impacts on fish populations and the evidence base for NNB’s plans to create compensatory habitats to compensate for the fish kill associated with the cooling water intakes. The response was able to draw on D&S IFCA’s partnership work with scientists from a range of organisations, including Dr Thomas Stamp from the University of Plymouth. Though in principle there are potential benefits to additional fish habitats, work by Dr Stamp and others has shown that recently created saltmarsh (like that planned by NNB) does not entirely fulfil the ecological role of established saltmarsh and suggests that it may take many years for compensatory saltmarsh to be equivalent to natural saltmarsh for fish. D&S IFCA’s response was also able to build on recent data from a study of twaite shad, led by Swansea University. This study suggests that NNB may have underestimated the number of fish likely to be killed by the HPC cooling water intakes.

As a result of this and a range of other evidence, D&S IFCA argued that the compensatory measures planned by NNB do not go far enough to compensate for the harm likely to be caused by NNB’s proposals to remove the AFD. Though D&S IFCA recognises the important ecological role of saltmarsh and other coastal habitats, D&S IFCA also believes that compensatory measures, for harm caused to protected sites and species, should be more ambitious than those proposed by NNB in the recent consultation.

Among other issues, D&S IFCA also challenged some of the evidence used in NNB’s impact assessments, NNB’s case for removing the acoustic fish deterrent from the cooling water intakes despite evidence of likely harm to protected sites, and the suitability of NNB’s compensation and monitoring plans. The full consultation response is available to read on D&S IFCA’s website here.

Aggregate Dredging in the Severn Estuary

On 13th March 2024, D&S IFCA responded to consultation requests from Natural Resources Wales (NRW) and the Marine Management Organisation (MMO) regarding applications for marine licenses for aggregate dredging in the Severn Estuary. The aggregate dredging at North Middle Grounds and Bedwyn Sands (offshore from Portishead and Avonmouth) has been proposed by Breedon Group, who have requested to dredge up to 7.5 million tonnes of sand in total from the two sites over 15 years (250,000 tonnes per site, per year). The areas to be dredged are intertidal and subtidal sandbanks that are designated features of the Severn Estuary Special Area of Conservation (SAC).

The Severn Estuary SAC is a protected site that hosts over 100 marine fish species and a variety of fish habitats including the sandbanks. These habitats support fish populations that can move over relatively large distances throughout their life cycles, and therefore support fisheries and other ecosystems elsewhere in the southwest of England and Wales. In response to the consultations, D&S IFCA expressed its concerns about impacts to fish habitats and direct impacts to fish such as sand eel, which are a key component of the marine food web. Both consultation responses are available to read on D&S IFCA’s website here (response to NRW consultation) and here (response to MMO consultation).

Mariculture Developments including Seaweed Farms

D&S IFCA responds to Marine Licence Applications (MLAs) for mariculture developments and assesses these proposals in light of its duties under the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009 (MaCAA) in particular under section 153 (c) ‘to take any other steps which in the authority’s opinion are necessary or expedient for the purpose of making a contribution to the achievement of sustainable development’ and (d) ‘to seek to balance the different needs of persons engaged in the exploitation of sea fisheries resources in the district’. 

Since 2019 D&S IFCA has reviewed information, provided evidence and engaged with potential seaweed farmers and other stakeholders on proposals for these developments within its District.  Some of this work has involved the initial stages of pre-application where engagement has been key to help the developer decide if an area is appropriate for the location of the seaweed farm.  D&S IFCA’s work entails reviewing information on the commercial fishing activity that may conflict with the proposal in a particular location, as well as the Marine Protected Area designations and habitats present. At this stage D&S IFCA often facilitates discussions between the seaweed farm developer and members of the fishing industry to aid the siting of a seaweed farm. One such proposal involved the siting of a 100 ha seaweed farm in Bideford Bay in North Devon to cultivate native UK seaweeds.  The applicant first came to D&S IFCA to discuss the proposal and requested information regarding the fishing activity in the area in order to find the best location without displacing existing operators within the area. The applicant asked D&S IFCA to help them engage with the fishing industry in this part of the District and D&S IFCA facilitated discussions and held several meetings with the applicant and members of the fishing industry. As a result of this engagement, the applicant adjusted the proposed location of the farm to reflect the views of the industry. D&S IFCA’s response to this MLA can be viewed here.

When an MLA for a seaweed farm is received D&S IFCA will review all the documents associated with the proposal and will also review and analyse the available fishing activity that D&S IFCA holds to help inform the response.  An example of a seaweed farm application which proposed locating the farm in the Tor Bay area involved reviewing 37 documents, preparation of charts of fishing activity and analysis of inshore vessel monitoring system (IVMS) data to evaluate the use of the site by the mobile fishing fleet in South Devon.

  • (The image above – Chart B – IVMS data points of all vessels with D&S IFCA Mobile Fishing Permits travelling between 2 and 4 knots in the area of the proposed seaweed farm Tor Bay).

The analysis of the IVMS showed the use of the location and its importance to the trawlers and scallopers operating out of nearby ports. The availability of  IVMS data was key in aiding the decision making as to whether the proposed location was appropriate in light of its impact to existing users of the marine space.  The site was contentious, and four responses, to the MLA and additional information provided by the applicant, were made by D&S IFCA to the MMO between August 2022 and April 2023.   The applicant withdrew the application in light of the evidence provided in D&S IFCA’s responses, which can be viewed below using the links:

Summary

Under Section 153(c) of MaCAA IFCAs must take any steps which in the authority’s opinion are necessary or expedient for the purpose of making a contribution to the achievement of sustainable development when preforming its duty to manage the exploitation of sea fisheries resources. Furthermore, the IFCA vision includes championing inshore fisheries, which rely on healthy, sustainable inshore populations of fish. D&S IFCA continues to engage proactively with fishing and aquaculture interests, scientists, developers and other regulators in order to fulfil these duties and ambitions, using the best available evidence and a balanced approach to managing a sustainable marine environment and inshore fisheries.

Page created: 26th July 2024