Cornish Fish News - Fisheries and Marine Renewable Energy

The Fisheries and Marine Renewable Energy Working Group: bringing the fishing and offshore energy industries together, creating a platform for dialogue and shedding much needed light on the topic of fishing effort displacement Maria Campbell, Plymouth University

As an emerging industry, Marine Renewable Energy (MRE) is expected to play a major contributory role if the UK is to successfully reach its desired target of renewable energy production by 2020. However, due to the competing objectives and priorities of MRE and other industries, for example fisheries, and in the delivering of conservation measures, the demand for space within our marine landscape is increasing, and interactions are inevitable.

In this particular case, we specifically deal with fishing effort displacement, i.e. the loss of fishing grounds.

Since 2011 three dedicated PhD students, Jiska de Groot, Matt Ashley and I, under the unfaltering supervision of Dr Lynda Rodwell, and guided by Dr Annie Linley from the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Marine Energy Programme, have endeavoured to investigate the issues that are important for each representative from these industries and aide in moving forward beyond these issues. Through the Marine Renewable Energy Knowledge Exchange Programme (MREKEP) we set up an action group and have brought together experts from each field and facilitated a series of workshops: leading to the identification of key challenges for improved co-existence between these industries; initiated action by way of exploring an agenda for reducing the impact on fishing, a mitigation agenda; set in motion a suite of recommendations; and have overall, successfully created a platform for meaningful dialogue to occur between these industries for the complete life cycle of MRE developments.

Initially, a general questionnaire for participants of the Environmental Interactions of Marine Renewable Energy (EIMR), held in Orkney in 2011 helped to identify research gaps and areas that the scientific community could focus their efforts upon. An open scoping survey workshop followed, and four main questions were discussed regarding the interactions between MRE and fisheries; what are the priority issues to focus on? What are the barriers to progress? How can we mitigate problems? and thoughts on the consultation process. Open discussions occurred after the initial facilitation in order to expand on the answers to these questions, and common themes and key challenges were identified. All this information helped populate an invite-only expert panel workshop. Representatives from five different energy companies, fishing industry personnel including active fishers from various sectors of the fleet, government regulators from England, Scotland, N. Ireland and Wales, and academics and professionals involved in fisheries, MRE and conservation were all in attendance. Before the expert panel workshop, the NFFO and Seafish came on

board funding a report on this topic, meaning both Dale Rodmell Assistant Chief Executive of NFFO and Mark Gray Head of Responsible Sourcing Seafish were both present.

Overall, three key challenges identified were:   

Data issues Assessment of fishing effort displacement Consultation and communication

In summary, data access, data sharing and data availability were high on the agenda of participants across all sectors and these issues need to be worked out. We need better data in order to appropriately assess fishing effort. One very important data source that I feel is relevant to Through the Gaps blog is Fishers’ Knowledge (FK) and everyone agreed that this data source is underutilised and through more strategic collaborations and better use of regulators, this could be amended. Regulators could help influence a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between industries. In the upcoming Gap2 conference (http://gap2.eu/gap2-international-symposium-2015/) there is a workshop dedicated this this topic. Right now there are discussions on creating protocols and best practice guidelines for data access and usage and we all need to be involved in this discussion.

Many methods exist at present to assess fishing effort, but none are specifically designed for displacement studies. Do we develop standards for all to use? How do we develop tools for this analysis? In particular, research is needed on specific gear interactions and the dynamics of fishing areas. The importance of using Plotter data, Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) data were discussed, however changes to EU legislation have meant that not all Member States have access to the same level of data, this cannot exist anymore if we want a full and complete assessment of fishing effort if we are to understand the true level of impact closures may have on the various sectors of the fleet. Promising work in the form of mobile phone technology, trialled in Brixham for example has been observed but there is room for improvement.

The final challenge deals with what one workshop participant named as the ‘fisheries disconnect’ what do we mean by this? It was felt that fishers during consultation and participation got left behind; the process was too ad hoc and not focussed on the issues at hand, resulting in a need for much better engagement and development of protocols. With improved engagement there is more room for mitigating fisheries impacts at the licensing stage. Local representation was a key feature, and perhaps the establishment of groups of different fishers using different gears in order to ensure a two-way dialogue. We also discussed the need to become a bit more innovative if we are to reach all members of the fishing sectors, even if the methods we use mean that it is just to stimulate ideas. It was suggested that the development of fisheries led initiatives involving developers and researchers was seen as a way of opening up constructive communication, whilst addressing trust and power balance issues, which were identified as key barriers in fisheries and

renewables interaction. Could we form a UK Fisheries and Scientists Society? This currently exists in Halifax Nova Scotia, a partnership based on effective communication and common goals between fishermen, scientists and the general public. The Society facilitates both collaborative research and the collection of relevant information that promotes the conservation of North Atlantic fisheries stock. It is aimed at establishing and maintaining a network of fishers and scientific personnel that are concerned with long-term sustainability of the marine fishing industry in the Atlantic region. We are seeing this level of collaboration in the Lyme Bay Potting Project and we must champion this, and there has been a lot of work between the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) is working together with Herriot Watt University's International Centre for Island Technologies, Seafood Scotland and industry input from the Orkney Fishermen's Society and Orkney Fishermen's Association. But clearly from this research carried out by my colleagues and I, there needs to be more.

At the end of the final workshop, action points were discussed and it was clear that we need to be gathering case studies and methods approaches to populate a case study repository and a Mitigation Toolkit. In order to do this, better guidelines and procedures to quantify displacement are urgently needed. If displacement is assessed at an early stage the developer can then shape the development accordingly. This in turn leads to promotion and understanding the need for fishers to share data, addresses specific protocols on how to respect commercial sensitivity and can aid developers to inform decisions and activity. This will require multiple partner support and should be initiated immediately. This would require project funding and protocols developed in order to share the data, and identification of the various bodies that could take on this responsibility. Beginning engagement and negotiation for upcoming projects at the earliest possible stage provides a significant opportunity for least impact on existing fishing activity. This, however, requires collaboration and communication between all stakeholders. This study has shown that it is necessary to formalise negotiation procedures, and develop appropriate methods for approaching fishers.

The research, which was the first of its kind to exist in the UK, demonstrated the need for a collaborative effort to overcome the potential difficulties associated with the coexistence of marine industries within limited marine space. There was an overwhelming sense of genuine desire for the two industries to work together to find solutions. And the work continues.

If any readers here would like to continue this conversation, I will gladly continue via whatever means you prefer. There are a suite of recommendations and action points that I would like comment on from more members of the fishing community and if possible I would like to talk to you about them.

Or, if you would like to simply know more, have access to the initial reports (the NFFO/Seafish report is in the final stages of editing, but others are freely available), would like a copy of the paper or others we have produced, have any comments whatsoever, would like me to access material for you and write about it, or would like to help with further work that I have planned please do not hesitate to contact me at maria.campbell@plymouth.ac.uk or, follow and tweet me @MariaC_ampbell