Economic value of Marine Protected Areas in British waters for Dutch fisheries

A portion of the British Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) has been designated as a Marine Protected Area (MPA). For some of these MPAs, research is being conducted to determine which types of fishing may pose a threat to vulnerable species, potentially leading to area closures or fishing restrictions. This concerns the so-called Stage 4 MPAs. For other MPAs, known as Byelaw MPAs, closures to bottom-contacting fishing have already been implemented. The purpose of this research was to determine the annual economic value of landings for the key segments of the Dutch fleet in the 18 British MPAs that are either being considered for closure or have already been closed, during the period 2014-2023. Additionally, the average value of the landings over the 2014-2023 period was determined. Moreover, the share of landings in these MPAs was calculated in comparison to the total landings of the Dutch fleet segments in British waters, and in comparison to overall landings.To determine the value of these MPAs for Dutch fisheries, location data from the Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) and logbook data, where landings are recorded per day or fishing trip, were used. By linking these two data types, it was possible to determine at a fine spatial scale which portion of the landings was caught within the MPAs and what their value was. For the Stage 4 MPAs, this was done for beam trawl, otter trawl, flyshoot, and pelagic fisheries. For the Byelaw MPAs, pelagic fishing was not included as there is a ban on bottom-towed gears in these areas. In addition to the economic value per fleet segment, the economic value per fishery region was also determined based on the port where the catch was landed. Due to the size and proximity of the MPA Southern North Sea, maps were created showing the spatial distribution of the average value for the four fleet segments in this MPA.The economic value of the MPA Southern North Sea is by far the largest, peaking in 2018 at over 45 million euros and fluctuating around 22 million euros since 2020. The vast majority of this was landed by the beam trawl fleet, for which the MPA Southern North Sea represented 80.2% of landings in UK waters and 22.5% of overall landings. The other Stage 4 MPAs are of lesser economic importance. Among the Byelaw MPAs, North Norfolk Sandbanks and Saturn Reef, and Haisborough, Hammond and Winterton are the most significant areas, where beam trawl fishing is by far the most important, though they still represent less than 1% of the total landings value of The other Byelaw MPAs are of little or no importance to the Dutch bottom-trawling fleet.The fishery region Zuidwest-Nederland had the largest share of landings from the MPA Southern North Sea, by far the most important MPA, followed by IJmuiden. Kop van Noord-Holland was the next most important fishery region, although in recent years, more landings have been made in the Scheveningen-Katwijk region. Belgian ports are becoming increasingly important. Catches from the MPA Outer Thames were primarily landed in the Southwest Netherlands and Kop van Noord-Holland regions. Catches from the two most important Byelaw MPAs, Haisborough, Hammond and Winterton, and North Norfolk Sandbanks and Saturn Reef, were mainly landed in the ‘Kop van Noord-Holland’ region, although this region's share has significantly decreased in recent years. The beam trawl fleet, the most important segment in the MPA Southern North Sea, primarily fishes in the central part of the area.For all MPAs where significant Dutch catches are reported, their importance to the Dutch fishing sector has decreased since 2014, with a particularly sharp decline since 2020. The linking of VMS data and logbooks introduces uncertainties that can result in differing estimates of total landings per area. The allocation of logbook data for which no VMS data is available is also based on assumptions about fishing activity within MPAs. Therefore, the results should be interpreted with some caution.

Bibliographic Details

Main Author:	van de Pol, Lennert
Format:	External research report biblioteca
Language:	English
Published:	Wageningen Marine Research
Subjects:	Life Science,
Online Access:	https://research.wur.nl/en/publications/economic-value-of-marine-protected-areas-in-british-waters-for-du
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