A formal system of marine spatial planning may still be some years down the road but when it arrives it will be of the utmost significance for all human activities at sea – including fishing – at least in EU waters.
Risks and Benefits for Fishing
As with most major initiatives like this, marine spatial planning potentially carries both risks and benefits. The benefits are a way of reducing the potential for chaos, as new offshore developments like wind-farms and marine protected areas, jockey for marine space with other seabed, water column and sea surface users, like aggregate dredging, shipping and of course, fishing. A rational, evidence based, fair and open system of planning could carry great advantages over an unplanned law- of- the- jungle approach.
There are particular dangers in marine spatial planning for fishing despite its prior claim on most sea areas, at least on the continental shelf. The wide dispersal of fishing activities often means that a crude indicator, such as £ per sq metre of different economic activities, will almost invariably put fishing at a disadvantage. Moving fishing aside to make space for higher-value-per-mere activities would be a built in feature of such an approach. Unless unchecked it would eventually lead to the displacement of fishing to such an extent that this important contributor to the country’s food security would be seriously affected.
