Question reference: S5W-35986
- Asked by: Claudia Beamish, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
- Date lodged: 11 March 2021
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Current status: Answered by Ben Macpherson on 22 March 2021
Question
To ask the Scottish Government what actions it is taking to halt the decline in biogenic reef habitats that was reported in the Scottish Marine Assessment 2020.
Answer
The biogenic habitats indicator was developed specifically for Scotland’s Marine Assessment (SMA) 2020 and reports losses in subtidal habitat extent only. The assessment covers the following six habitats: blue mussel beds, horse mussel beds, flame shell beds, maerl beds, seagrass beds and serpulid aggregations. All of the habitats are Priority Marine Features (PMFs).
Fifteen examples of biogenic habitats were assessed as part of SMA 2020. Of the 10 examples where declines were recorded, nine are within Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) and seven of these have fisheries management measures in place to protect these priority marine features. Of the other three, two are in existing MPAs with proposed fisheries management measures being developed and the other is within a proposed management area for PMFs outside the MPA network.
The Scottish Government is in the process of developing fisheries management measures for the 11 most vulnerable PMFs, which include all six biogenic habitats, outside of MPAs. Furthermore, fisheries management measures for MPAs were established for the 17 most sensitive sites in 2016, with the second phase for the next 18 sites under development.
This work was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We intend to resume the project as soon as it is safe to hold face-to-face stakeholder meetings again.