METHODS article
Front. Mar. Sci.
Sec. Marine Conservation and Sustainability
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmars.2025.1601392
Predicting the environmental and socio-economic impacts of displaced fishing effort from a Hypothetical Highly Protected Marine Area, located in English inshore waters
Provisionally accepted
- 1Natural England, Sheffield, United Kingdom
- 2Devon and Severn Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority (IFCA), Brixham, England, United Kingdom
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In response to the Benyon review the UK Government introduced three Highly Protected Marine Areas (HPMAs), adding to the 178 Marine protected areas (MPAs) already designated in English waters. All extractive, destructive and depositional activities are prohibited within HPMAs to promote ecosystem recovery. However, it is a requirement of the designation process to consider the socio-economic impacts of the placement of a HPMA. There are many marine sectors competing for space in English waters, therefore displacing all damaging or disturbing activities occurring within newly designated HPMAs could further exacerbate this conflict. One key marine sector that is vulnerable to displacement from HPMAs is commercial fishing. Although a template to assess displacement has been developed, this template has not yet been applied. Therefore, this study aims to bridge this gap; applying a full displacement assessment to a Hypothetical HPMA (HypHPMA, 25km 2 ), located within English inshore waters. This study investigates the extent to which commercial fishing vessels use the HypHPMA and potential reductions in catch (kg) and gross
Keywords: Fishing effort displacement, Marine Protected Area, Remote electronic monitoring, Inshore Vessel Monitoring System, VMStools, Benthic habitat sensitivity
Received: 27 Mar 2025; Accepted: 15 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Reeves, Hartley, Stewart, Clark, Parkhouse and Vaughan. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Melanie Hartley, Natural England, Sheffield, United Kingdom
Duncan Vaughan, Natural England, Sheffield, United Kingdom
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