Protecting the international Dogger Bank habitat By mr. John Clorley (DEFRA, UK) also on behalf of Germany and the Netherlands

Outline of the presentation I General setting: legal and policy context II Problem analysis III The fisheries measures from the draft Joint Recommendation IV Procedure: next steps 13 June 2016 Protecting the interntional Dogger Bank habitat

I General setting: legal and policy context

Protecting the interntional Dogger Bank habitat Geographical context All N2000 sites are on the list of Sites of Community Importance 13 June 2016 Protecting the interntional Dogger Bank habitat

Protecting the interntional Dogger Bank habitat Legal context 1 Habitats Directive Member States shall take appropriate steps to avoid, in the special areas of conservation, the deterioration of natural habitats and the habitats of species (art. 6.2) Dogger Bank under the scope of Ann. I: Sandbanks which are slightly covered by sea water all the time (type 1110) Fisheries: Basic Regulation EC 1380/2013 CFP - management of fisheries outside territorial waters – EU Regulation Procedure for establishment conservation measures Art. 11 and 18 13 June 2016 Protecting the interntional Dogger Bank habitat

Protecting the interntional Dogger Bank habitat Legal context 2 Article 11 provides a process through which Member States can propose fisheries management measures for sites designated under the Nature Directives and other sites identified as requirement to deliver the MPA aspects of the MSFD All measures passed under Article 11 need to be sufficiently robust as to meet EU environmental law obligations and the objectives of the CFP. These measures should include: The precautionary principle Avoiding the deterioration of natural habitats and the habitats of species as well as the disturbance of the species for which they have been designated Establishing “necessary conservation measures” that will meet the ecological requirements of the protected habitats or species in a SAC Establishing “spatial protection measures” that will contribute to a “coherent and representative network of MPAs 13 June 2016 Protecting the interntional Dogger Bank habitat

Protecting the interntional Dogger Bank habitat Legal Context 3 The initiating Member State and other Member States with a direct management interest may submit a joint recommendation as referred to in Article 18(1) within 6 months from the provision of sufficient information. Under Article 18(2) Member States are obliged to consult Advisory Councils as part of this process If all Member States succeed in reaching an agreement on the measures, these are submitted to the Commission, who shall adopt the measures, within 3 months Various COM guidelines: Marine Guidelines (2007), Guidelines CFP measures (2008) Good to know that the n2k group has produced an overview of the potential interactions and impacts of commercial fishing methods on marine habitats and species protected under the EU Habitat directive (MEG) And a Common methodology for assessing the impact of fisheries on marine Natura 2000 13 June 2016 Protecting the interntional Dogger Bank habitat

Protecting the interntional Dogger Bank habitat Process 2006 German EMPAS Project 2009 Dutch FIMPAS Project 2011 Establishment of International Dogger Bank Steering Group with: 4 MS Fishing Industry NGOs EC (MARE and ENVI) ICES Chair of the NSAC Spatial Planning Working Group 2012 ICES Advice 2013 Agreement on the measures and background information This is a very brief overview of the process as you know it, this slide can be skipped if necessary 13 June 2016 Protecting the interntional Dogger Bank habitat

Protecting the interntional Dogger Bank habitat Principles Sound scientific basis Stakeholder involvement Multilateral coordination Transparency Proportionality Non discrimination Keep in mind - Commission guidance on the management of fisheries that “the proposed measures should be consistent with the conservation objectives for the sites concerned” and “the absence of adequate scientific information should not be used as a reason for postponing or failing to take management measures” See p 19 of the Background Document for a further explanation of these principles 13 June 2016 Protecting the interntional Dogger Bank habitat

II Problem analysis

Target: Protection of bottom habitat indicates the benthic communities on Dogger Bank based on the map of the endobenthic communities from WIEKING AND KRÖNCKE, 2003, as depicted by van Moorsel (2011). Refer to the BGD at p. 22 13 June 2016 Protecting the interntional Dogger Bank habitat

Common Conservation Objectives 1 Approach: Current conservation status: unfavourable due to Significant habitat disturbance Distortion of species composition We Aim to Decrease human pressures provide a contribution to moving the site towards its conservation objectives. See BGD p. 25; A 13 June 2016 Protecting the interntional Dogger Bank habitat

Analysis of the fisheries on the DB Main target species: plaice, sole, sand eel DK, GER, NL, UK: accountable for >90% plaice (esp. UK 95% sand eel (DK mainly) Backgrounddocument contains detailed statistics on landing values 13 June 2016 Protecting the interntional Dogger Bank habitat

Fisheries effort, landings, gross value Figure 8.1. Fisheries effort, total landings and gross value of landings by gear group in the total SCI. The two ‘beam trawl’ entries are directed for flatfish and nephrops respectively. The three ‘Bottom trawl’ entries are all three Bottom otter board trawls and from left to right (1) directed for demersal fish, (2) directed for nephrops and (3) directed for shrimp. Herring, sand eel and sprat mean Bottom otter board trawls used in fisheries directed for herring, sand eel and sprat respectively. The catches of demersal fish are on the Dogger Bank dominated by flatfish (plaice and sole). 13 June 2016 Protecting the interntional Dogger Bank habitat

Landings from DB in % of landings Div. |IVB, Plaice and sand eel Landings (weight) reported from the Dogger Bank SCI in % of the landings reported from the Central North Sea (Division IVb) by year 2007-2009. Plaice 14.1% 15.5% 18.9% 16.2% Sand eel 3.7% 4.2% 29.2% 12.4% Landings (weight) reported from the Dogger Bank SCI in % of the landings reported from the Central North Sea (Division IVb) by year 2007-2009. 13 June 2016 Protecting the interntional Dogger Bank habitat

Fleets: 4 major gear groups Beam trawl Bottom Otter Board Trawl Sand eel trawl Seines (incl. Flyshoot) 13 June 2016 Protecting the interntional Dogger Bank habitat

Maximum potential loss (tables 8d and 8e) ‘Maximum Potential loss’ is the sum of landing values in the closed zone Maximum potential loss is not the same as “income loss”, TAC’s are not affected, i.e. it may be possible to catch the lost amount of fish elsewhere and in close proximity to the closed areas leaving costs largely unaffected. 13 June 2016 Protecting the interntional Dogger Bank habitat

Seasonal Distribution of fisheries in the years 2007-2009 Main conclusions : (see maps p. 42 and on) all fisheries have marked seasonality with second and third quarters as the period when the fisheries are most active. The seasonality is particular marked for the sand eel fishery. The same fisheries occur also elsewhere in Division IVb in all seasons See next slide for example 13 June 2016 Protecting the interntional Dogger Bank habitat

Seasonal distribution: beam trawl 13 June 2016 Protecting the interntional Dogger Bank habitat

Seasonal distribution: beam trawl 13 June 2016 Protecting the interntional Dogger Bank habitat

Seasonal distribution: beam trawl 13 June 2016 Protecting the interntional Dogger Bank habitat

Seasonal distribution: beam trawl 13 June 2016 Protecting the interntional Dogger Bank habitat

Seasonal distribution: beam trawl 13 June 2016 Protecting the interntional Dogger Bank habitat

Protecting the interntional Dogger Bank habitat Displacement ICES advice: displacement of (otter board, beam) trawl fisheries will be limited Some displacement is likely to occur to areas within the SCI that are not closed 1st and 2nd trawl pass are the most damaging Potential further deterioration is extremely difficult to assess . It is unlikely that, under the current proposal, displacement will be a significant problem but there may be increased fishing efforts along the open/closed boundaries. 13 June 2016 Protecting the interntional Dogger Bank habitat

III The fisheries measures from the draft Joint Recommendation

Preliminary Considerations 1 Measures are designed to make a key contribution Introduction of a zoning concept Surface of management zones sufficiently large, Management zones include all benthic communities Holistic perspective of the entire Dbank Specific considerations for individual MS (p. 29 BGD) Specific considerations Germany: that a 50% closure of the German SCI has been proposed by German scientific institutions (BfN/TI) to achieve a favourable conservation status of the habitat type 1110; UK : that adequate coverage of the shallowest part of the Dogger Bank was to be achieved, in light of the EC Guidelines and interpretation manual which puts a special focus for habitat type 1110 on sandbanks up to 20 m depth; Netherlands: that areas with localized habitat features, as contained in the Van Moorsel report (2011) , are to be included in the management zones. This pertains especially to areas of known higher densities of long-lived benthic species, such as quahogs (Witbaard and Bergman 2003), since they would be especially important in light of the conservation objectives.   13 June 2016 Protecting the interntional Dogger Bank habitat

Preliminary Considerations 2 Stakeholder driven input for the measures Built on existing data Economic and socio economic considerations taken into account Mindful of windpark developments Adaptive approach SEINING: Achieving favourable conservation status of Habitat 1110 is regarded as uncertain with ongoing demersal seines fisheries. Data is lacking to conclusively make such an assessment. In order to acquire this data the German management zone will be closed to demersal seines to allow analysis of the impact of such fishing gear as part of a specific monitoring programme and by a targeted experiment; 13 June 2016 Protecting the interntional Dogger Bank habitat

Proposed fisheries management measures 1 Establishment of a zoning system Dividing the area in 6 zones corresponding to the benthic communities Each management zone has an alert zone All management zones will be closed to the following mobile bottom contacting gear types Beam Trawl. Bottom Trawl/Otter trawl. Dredges. Semi-pelagic trawls 13 June 2016 Protecting the interntional Dogger Bank habitat

Proposed fisheries management measures 2 remaining area is open to all not otherwise prohibited fishing gears New and/or modified gears: should be able to obtain a derogation where the use of such gears in the management zones will not jeopardize the delivery of conservation objectives procedure, scientific doc., via MS to EC Evaluation after 6 years 13 June 2016 Protecting the interntional Dogger Bank habitat

Control and Enforcement (Reg. 1224/2009) MS’s FMC’s are responsible VMS compulsory if prohibited gear on board, traveling < 6 kn in management zone or alert zone Transit through alert zone and management zone permitted: gear should be stowed and lashed; minimum speed of >6 kn. Exception force majeure 13 June 2016 Protecting the interntional Dogger Bank habitat

IV Procedure: next steps

Agreement in the region We should reach agreement within the Scheveningen Group about these proposals If possible formal meeting of an AD HOC group If not: a 2nd informal consultative meeting After agreement in the Scheveningen Group: Forward the proposals to the European Commission 13 June 2016 Protecting the interntional Dogger Bank habitat

Protecting the interntional Dogger Bank habitat NSAC Advice NSAC has received the relevant documentation Case will be presented in meeting of the Spatial Planning Working Group of July 4th (the Hague) 13 June 2016 Protecting the interntional Dogger Bank habitat

Protecting the interntional Dogger Bank habitat Conclusion |The aim of the meeting is to assess whether we have sufficient information IF the information provided to the MS constitutes sufficient information as mentioned in art. 18 Reg. The initiating MS intend to move to the formal procedure 13 June 2016 Protecting the interntional Dogger Bank habitat