Research and analysis

Strategic environmental assessment environmental report – non-technical summary

Published 8 February 2024

Non-technical summary 

The whelk fisheries management plan (FMP) has been prepared to meet the requirements of the Fisheries Act 2020. It sets out the policies and proposed measures Defra will use to manage whelk fishing activity, so stocks are harvested within sustainable levels. Alongside these measures, the whelk 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 whelk 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. 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 judgement on the environmental effects of the whelk FMP.  

This report sets out those plans, programmes and environmental protection objectives, both international and domestic, that Defra considers relevant to the whelk FMP. 

The report considers and acknowledges the existing environmental effects of whelk fishing using pots and traps 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 whelk 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 whelk fishery has a limited impact on the wider marine environment beyond the whelk population itself. No significant issues in relation to MPAs were identified. The contribution of fishing-related litter and potential bycatch of non-target species were identified as the principal potential impacts associated with whelk fishing. The contribution of whelk fishing to climate change related issues and its interactions with cultural heritage, through entanglement of pot ropes, for example, were also identified as potential impacts. 

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