North Western Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority 20 In addition to delivering our statutory enforcement duties for the HPMA, we also want to continue working closely with NE to support them in delivering their own duties around monitoring the environmental impact of the HPMA. In 2023/24, we commenced discussions with our NE colleagues on providing resources to them, in the form of officers and vessels, to help them deliver their monitoring work. This year, we will finalise these agreements and look to have NE officers working alongside our own onboard North Western Protector, delivering a bespoke monitoring methodology within the HPMA which will hopefully help demonstrate the HPMA’s positive ecological impacts. Lead Officer: CEO MPA EIAs There are 21 MPAs across NWIFCA’s district, with six Special Areas of Conservation (SACs), seven Special Protection Areas (SPAs), seven Marine Conservation Zones (MCZs) and one HPMA. These have come into being over many years of designation, and over the intervening years, we have prioritised assessment of fishing activities in specific MPAs to ensure they are compliant and minimise impacts on protected features, whether those are marine habitats or species. This process, known as an environmental impact assessment (EIA)-, is a statutory requirement for us to undertake. It involves significant data gathering, collation and analysis, which is then used to inform our technical assessments of the potential impacts fisheries activities might have on an MPA’s protected features. We have now conducted these assessments for the majority of our fisheries activities occurring within MPAs, but we still have some outstanding MPA fisheries to assess. In 2024/25, we will aim to carry out fisheries assessments on Cumbria Coast MCZ, Allonby Bay MCZ (the area not covered by the HPMA) and Solway Firth MCZ. Further assessments are required for Wyre and Lune MCZ, and Ribble MCZ. However, these sites still have outstanding NE conservation advice packages, and so they will be best placed for assessment once these are available. In addition, we will assess mussel fishing activity on the Foulney mussel beds in the Morecambe Bay and Duddon Estuary SPA and Morecambe Bay SAC. Lead Officer: Head of Science For SACs and SPAs, the specific EIA process is known as a habitats regulations assessment (HRA).
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