IFM response to MMO MPA Fisheries Management Stage 3 Consultation 

Overview

The Institute for Fisheries Management strongly welcomes the Marine Management Organisation (MMO) taking the necessary steps to further manage fishing in all offshore benthic Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) around England. We fully support the four regional sea byelaws to manage these 42 MPAs. We strongly agree that bottom trawling is incompatible with maintaining site integrity and/or the conservation objectives of the sites, and that byelaws are necessary to prohibit this activity and prevent further damage to the sites. 

At the same time as supporting these proposals, we are concerned that the government is still taking a feature-based approach rather than a whole-site approach, and we request the latter for the three sites where whole-site protection is not proposed. We also recommend that all industrial fishing is banned from the MPAs, i.e. pelagic trawlers, in addition to bottom-trawlers and dredgers, as industrial fishing is incompatible with the aims of MPAs[1]. 

We are keen that the MPAs are protected to meet marine conservation aims as well as implement relevant legislation and policies. Including: 

  • Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009; 
  • Offshore Marine Habitats and Species Regulations 2017); 
  • Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2017; Fisheries Act 2020; 
  • Marine Strategy Regulations 2010; and
  • United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) 30 by 30 commitment.[2]

You can read our full response below

IFM response to MMO offshore MPAs Stage 3 consultation 2025Download

[1] https://www.iucncongress2020.org/motion/066 RECOGNISING that ‘industrial fishing’ activities can be identified by variables including the capacity and size of vessels and the method and volume of fish extraction, and that in the context of protected areas, ‘industrial fishing’ is defined here as (>12 m long x 6 m wide) motorised vessels, with a capacity of >50 kg catch/voyage, requiring substantial sums for their construction, maintenance, and operation and mostly sold commercially, and that all fishing using trawling gears that are dragged or towed across the seafloor or through the water column, and fishing using purse seines and large longlines, is defined as industrial fishing.

[2] The ecosystem approach is referenced in numerous decisions of the parties to the CBD – see Decision II/8 (1995) (para 1) as affirmed by Decision V/6, Annex, Principles 5–6 and Decision VIII/24.