Research and analysis

Strategic environmental assessment environmental report – non-technical summary

Published 8 February 2024

1. Non-technical summary

The fisheries management plan (FMP) for sea bass in English and Welsh waters (hereafter ‘bass FMP’) has been prepared to meet the requirements of the Fisheries Act 2020. It sets out the policies and proposed measures Defra and the Welsh Government will use to manage sea bass fishing activity in their waters, so stocks are harvested within sustainable levels. Alongside these measures, the bass FMP also sets out management approaches to help support wider social, economic and environmental aspects of the fishery.

This environmental report (ER) has been produced in accordance with the Environmental Assessment of Plans and Programmes Regulations 2004 (SEA Regulations 2004). The following issues (from Schedule 2, paragraph 6 of the SEA Regulations 2004) were scoped into the assessment:

• biodiversity
• fauna
• flora
• geology and sediments (soil)
• water
• climatic factors
• cultural heritage

This assessment focuses on how the policies and actions in the bass FMP could give rise to both significant positive and negative environmental effects. The findings of this assessment have been used to inform the development of the FMP.

The assessment was conducted against a baseline that primarily used existing evidence on the state of the marine environment set out in the updated UK Marine Strategy (UKMS) Part 1, published in 2019. Additional sources of evidence were used to establish the current status of the environment in relation to issues not covered by the UKMS, such as climatic factors and cultural heritage. The historical impact of fishing activity on the marine environment has been considered as part of the baseline. The assessment has been undertaken using the best available evidence to reach a suitable judgement on the environmental effects of the bass FMP.

This report sets out those plans, programmes and environmental protection objectives, both international and domestic, that Defra and Welsh Government consider relevant to the bass FMP.

The report considers and acknowledges the existing environmental effects of sea bass fishing using nets, towed gear, and hook and line on those issues scoped into this assessment, in relation to Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), the UKMS descriptors of good environmental status (GES) for the wider marine environment, and climatic factors. The potential positive and negative environmental effects of the bass FMP’s policies and proposed measures alone and in-combination have also been assessed.

The strategic environmental assessment (SEA) concluded that the current evidence shows the sea bass fishery has an impact on the marine environment, primarily through bycatch of marine mammals, seabirds and fish. The impact of sea bass fishing in MPAs is managed in the 0 to 12 nautical miles (nm) zone in English waters. Management in MPAs beyond the 12nm limit is being developed in England. Interactions between seabass fishing activity and relevant MPA features in Wales are currently being assessed, and appropriate management measures will be considered and implemented where necessary. Further work is required to reduce the impact of seabass fishing beyond MPAs to ensure GES targets for seabed integrity (D6) can be achieved. The contribution of sea bass fishing to climate change related issues and its interactions with cultural heritage, through net and line entanglement, for example, were also identified as potential impacts.

The bass FMP has considered these impacts and sets out proposals for the FMP to monitor and, where required, introduce mitigation to address the impacts.

The assessment of the policies, measures and actions did not identify any negative effects that posed a significant risk to the environment. The policies, measures and actions will, where appropriate, be developed to avoid any potential negative effects identified by the assessment process. The environmental effects of implementing the bass FMP’s policies and measures will also be monitored to identify unforeseen adverse effects at an early stage, so appropriate remedial action can be undertaken.

This assessment recommends that the bass FMP should consider the following additional points.

1. Future iterations of the FMP should consider how to develop the cultural heritage of each fishery, and how fisheries management can contribute to reducing potential negative interactions with marine heritage assets.
2. The bass FMP would benefit from providing more specific detail on how it will interact with Marine Plans. Describing how the FMP could positively or negatively interact with this programme would improve the in-combination assessment (a component of the SEA which evaluates the potential impacts of the plan in combination with other plans or projects).

Read the full environmental report for the bass FMP.