2004 Strategic Environmental Assessment SEA5 Technical Report - Shellfish and fisheries (Northern North Sea)

This report is a contribution to the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA5) conducted by the Department of Trade and Industry (now Department of Energy and Climate Change). The SEA5 review differs from previous assessments in that the zone includes a large coastal fringe, along the whole east coast of Scotland and the Northern Isles, and contains a diverse range of habitats, from inter-tidal rocky shores and sandy beaches, to the shallow sub-littoral and deepwater mud basins offshore. These habitats support a wide range of invertebrate resources, of which six species of crustacean, four species of bivalve mollusc and two species of gastropod mollusc form the basis of a thriving shellfish fishing industry in Scotland.



The landings are dominated by the Norway lobster, Nephrops norvegicus which occurs in four main areas, one of which, the Fladen ground, is in close proximity to mature oil fields. The fishery for this species in the North Sea is likely to increase, with diversion of effort from the demersal fisheries for cod and other whitefish.



Much of this expansion should take place at Fladen where the stock is at present under-exploited. It is likely, however, that trawl gear used in the Norway lobster (and pink shrimp) fisheries will be required to be more selective in order to reduce the by-catch of demersal fish, especially cod, and the wastage through discarding of under-sized fish.



Relevant aspects of the biology of each species are described, including habitat preference, distribution, feeding, life-cycle, reproduction and spawning. Details are given about the fishing methods used, assessments of the state of stocks, and the management regime and legislation currently used to control each fishery.

Simple

Date (Publication)
2004-01-01
Citation identifier
British Geological Survey / BGS_SEA_67
Point of contact
Organisation name Individual name Electronic mail address Role

British Geological Survey (BGS)

Paul Henni

offshoredata@bgs.ac.uk

Custodian

Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC)

enquiries@decc.gsi.gov.uk

Originator
Maintenance and update frequency
Not planned
Resource format
Name Version

Documents
Keywords

SeaDataNet Parameter Discovery Vocabulary

GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0

  • Species distribution

SeaVoX Vertical Co-ordinate Coverages
Use limitation

The SEAs data were produced as part of the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change's Offshore Energy Strategic Environmental Assessment programme; Crown Copyright, all rights reserved. The DECC SEA must be acknowledged in any maps or publications that make use of the data. All the data files are freely available to the public. The Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) data portal provides free access to available data and reports which have been produced through the SEA process. The site is run and managed by BGS on behalf of the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC). Many files can be downloaded directly from this website. Those that are too large to download can be ordered via the website for postal delivery from BGS. BGS (NERC) has been contracted by DECC to publish SEA datasets on its behalf. All intellectual property rights (including , without limitation, copyrights, database rights and all other rights which subsist or may at any time in the future subsist in the Dataset(s)) in the Dataset(s) ('Intellectual Property Rights') are owned by DECC (formerly the Department of Trade and Industry, and the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform). BGS has been authorised by DECC to use SEA datasets for all purposes but on a 'not-for-profit basis'. BGS has been authorised by DECC to pass on SEA datasets to third parties so that they can use them for all purposes but on a 'not-for-profit' basis.

Access constraints
Intellectual property rights
Distance
5  m
Language
English
Topic category
  • Biota
  • Environment
  • Oceans
  • Utilities communication
Title

SeaVoX salt and fresh water body gazetteer
Date (Revision)
2006-01-01
Code
North Sea
N
S
E
W
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Begin date
2004-01-01
End date
2004-01-01
Supplemental Information

http://www.offshore-sea.org.uk/site/index.php

Reference system identifier
OGP / urn:ogc:def:crs:EPSG::4326
Distribution format
    OnLine resource
    Protocol Linkage Name
    http://www.bgs.ac.uk/data/sea/home.html

    Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) data portal
    Hierarchy level
    Dataset
    Statement

    Report prepared by Colin A Chapman as part of the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change's Offshore Energy Strategic Environmental Assessment programme. Fishery landings data were available from yearly additions of Scottish Sea Fisheries Statistics and from the Aberdeen Marine Laboratory fishery statistics database. The latter information is stored with reference to ICES statistical rectangle codes. Each rectangle covers an area of seabed of approximately 30 square nautical miles. The grid of ICES statistical rectangles does not match precisely with the boundaries of the SEA5 zone, requiring a degree of compromise in selecting the most appropriate fishery data. Account was also taken of the fact that when the SEA5 boundaries were originally established, several inshore areas were excluded from oil and gas

    Metadata

    File identifier
    aba64100-c137-4de3-e044-0003ba6f30bd XML
    Metadata language
    English
    Hierarchy level
    Dataset
    Date stamp
    2011-08-30
    Metadata standard name

    MEDIN Discovery Metadata Standard
    Metadata standard version

    Version 2.3.5
    Metadata author
    Organisation name Individual name Electronic mail address Role

    British Geological Survey (BGS)

    Mary Mowat

    offshoredata@bgs.ac.uk

    		Point of contact
     
     

    Overviews

    Spatial extent

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    Keywords



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