5.1.6.2.1 Final scenario 1: Marine Conservation Zone designation

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Assumption

All five recommended Marine Conservation Zones (rMCZs) in the North Devon Biosphere Reserve area are designated.

All of these sites, with the exception of Morte Platform, were included in Tranche 2 of the recommended Marine Conservation Zones put forward for designation by Defra [2014].

However, Morte Platform recommended Marine Conservation Zones, was put forward by Finding Sanctuary, the South West Regional project, in their recommendations to government in 2011 [Lieberknecht et al. 2011].

Thus within the recommended Marine Conservation Zones scenario, two sub-scenarios were constructed to examine the implications of designation both with and without Morte platform included to determine the importance of this site to the provision of ecosystem services.

5 1 6 3 Map 1

Figure: Recommended Marine Conservation Zones (rMCZs) within the North Devon Biosphere Reserve area

Changes to existing activities

Our assumption is that demersal towed gears will be excluded from all recommended Marine Conservation Zones while static gears would be permitted.

The response by the fisheries sector to new byelaws excluding them from recommended Marine Conservation Zones sites would be variable according to the location of each recommended Marine Conservation Zones (this is based on discussions with fishermen):

Demersal mobile effort at Morte Platform and North of Lundy is lost;
Demersal mobile effort at Hartland Point to Tintagel and Bideford to Foreland Point is displaced to nearby areas (aside from demersal trawling north of Lynmouth which is lost).
Maintenance dredging within the Bideford–Foreland Point would continue.

Key Drivers

The main drivers for this are international policies on biodiversity conservation, including the Convention on Biological diversity and OSPAR. There is also a requirement for a well-managed network of MPAs within the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive (2008/56/EC). This is transposed into UK policy within the Marine & Coastal Access Act [2009].