The Fisheries Impacts Evidence Database Spreadsheet (FIED) and Fisheries Impacts on Marine Protected Habitats – A Review of the Evidence are two evidence products produced by Natural England as part of a project commissioned by Defra’s Marine Biodiversity Impacts Evidence Group. The purpose of each product is to support the assessment and management of commercial fishing in Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), providing a collation of impacts evidence is to inform Habitat Regulations and Marine Conservation Zone Assessments. These products will therefore be primarily of use to fisheries regulators but will be publicly available.
The FIED was initially created and developed by the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas) to signpost key evidence sources to support the assessment of the potential fishing impacts in European Marine Sites. As part of this evidence project the spreadsheet has been updated and increased in scope to include evidence related to Marine Conservation Zone feature. The updated spreadsheet is searchable using specific terms for features, sub-features, and fishing gear types. Natural England will periodically update it.
The Fisheries Impacts on Marine Protected Habitats – A Review of the Evidence is a written document that provides summaries of evidence concerning the impacts of different fishing gears on MPA features. These summaries reflect our best available evidence on impacts at the time of writing, as well as highlight key evidence gaps and limitations. It should be noted that whilst these syntheses will support regulators in their MPA assessments, site specific assessments would need to also consider any further new or site-specific evidence.