Strategic environmental assessment environmental report – non-technical summary
Published 10 October 2024
© Crown copyright 2024
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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/environmental-assessment-and-evidence-southern-north-sea-and-eastern-channel-mixed-flatfish-fmp/a99c357e-fb92-41ed-be95-35ca9359fdc0
Non-technical summary
The Southern North Sea and Eastern Channel Mixed Flatfish Fisheries Management Plan (FMP) has been prepared to meet the requirements of the Fisheries Act 2020. It sets out the policies and proposed actions Defra will use to manage flatfish fishing activity, so stocks are harvested within sustainable levels. Alongside these actions, the Southern North Sea and Eastern Channel mixed flatfish FMP also sets out management 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
- landscape and seascape
This assessment focuses on how the policies and actions in the Southern North Sea and Eastern Channel mixed flatfish FMP are likely to 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 updated UK Marine Strategy (UKMS) Part 1, published in 2019.
Additional sources of evidence were used to establish the 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 part of the baseline. Our assessment used the best available evidence to reach a suitable judgement on the environmental effects of the Southern North Sea and Eastern Channel mixed flatfish FMP.
This report sets out those plans, programmes and environmental protection objectives, both international and domestic that Defra consider relevant to the Southern North Sea and Eastern Channel mixed flatfish FMP.
This report considers and acknowledges the existing environmental effects of flatfish fishing using towed gear on those issues scoped into this assessment, in relation to Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), the UKMS descriptors and the wider environment. The potential positive and negative environmental effects of the Southern North Sea and Eastern Channel mixed flatfish FMP’s policies and proposed actions alone and in-combination have also been assessed.
This strategic environmental assessment (SEA) concluded that current evidence shows the Southern North Sea and Eastern Channel mixed flatfish fishery has an impact on the marine environment primarily through seabed disturbance. The impact of flatfish fishing in MPAs is managed in the 0 to 12 nautical mile (nm) zone in English waters. Management in MPAs beyond the 12nm limit is in development. Further work is required to reduce the impact of flatfish fishing on habitats beyond MPAs to ensure good environmental status (GES) targets for seabed integrity (D6) are achieved. The contribution of flatfish fishing to climate change related issues and its interactions with cultural heritage, through structural damage for example, were also identified as potential impacts.
The Southern North Sea and Eastern Channel mixed flatfish FMP has considered these impacts and sets out proposals to monitor, and where required, introduce mitigation to address these impacts.
The assessment of likely negative effects identified a low risk of significant adverse effects on the environment from implementing individual policies and actions. The policies and actions, will, where appropriate, be developed to avoid any potential negative effects identified by the assessment progress. The environmental effects of implementing the Southern North Sea and Eastern Channel mixed flatfish FMP policies and actions will also be monitored to identify unforeseen adverse effects at an early stage, so appropriate remedial action can be undertaken.
Additionally, this assessment recommends that future iterations of the Southern North Sea and Eastern Channel mixed flatfish FMP should consider:
- how to develop the cultural heritage of each fishery and how fisheries management can contribute to reducing potential negative interactions with submerged prehistoric landscapes or seascapes
- how fisheries management can contribute to reducing potential negative interactions with submerged prehistoric landscapes or seascapes