Marine Protected Areas: Fisheries

(asked on 19th January 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the environmental effect of bottom trawling in UK Marine Protected Areas.


Answered by
Rebecca Pow Portrait
Rebecca Pow
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This question was answered on 25th January 2021

Marine protection is a devolved matter and the information provided relates to England only.

We have made good progress in implementing management measures within our inshore Marine Protected Areas. Following assessments of the impact of fishing activity, vulnerable species and habitats in over 90 Marine Protected Areas are now protected from bottom towed fishing gear.

Until recently, the Common Fisheries Policy had restricted our ability to implement fisheries management measures within offshore Marine Protected Areas. The Fisheries Act 2020 includes a new power to allow the introduction of byelaws for conservation purposes in offshore waters and we will make rapid progress this year in protecting more sites.

In October, the Marine Management Organisation launched a call for evidence to inform the management decisions for four offshore Marine Protected Areas. The evidence provided during this process will help shape and inform options ahead of formal consultation on byelaws early in 2021.

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