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Metadata: Monitoring the Consequences of the Northwestern North Sea Sandeel Fishery Closure
Abstract:
By 1997 sandeel abundance on the Wee Bankie was already depressed as a result of fishing activities, and continuation of the fishery up to 1999 caused further declines. As a precautionary measure to safeguard marine top predators, particularly seabirds at internationally important colonies in and around the Firth of Forth, an area off the east coast of Scotland, from Rattray Head to St Abbs, was closed to industrial fishing for sandeels in 2000. High levels of recruitment in 1999 and 2000, combined with a lack of any significant fishing activity in 1999, resulted in an immediate and substantial increase in the biomass of sandeels on the Wee Bankie grounds in 2000; the first year of the sandeel closure. Since 2001, sandeel biomass has steadily declined to levels in 2007 that were similar to those observed in 1997 and 1998 when the sandeel fishery in the area was active. In the absence of sustained recruitment, consumption by marine top predators, along with other causes of natural mortality, have exceeded growth production in the population. Closing the area to fishing has not been sufficient to ensure high abundances of sandeels in the area. Recruitment of young sandeels, at or above long-term average levels, is also necessary, and since this is primarily governed by natural process, this may be beyond the capacity of fisheries management alone to achieve. Variation in the abundance and feeding ecology of gadoid predators in the study area was unrelated to variation in sandeel abundance and so remained unaffected by closure of the fishery. Numbers of guillemots, razorbills, puffins and kittiwakes recorded at sea in the study area all appeared to increase with closure of the fishery, and then subsequently to decline again as local sandeel abundance declined. The increase in auk abundance at sea may well have resulted from an influx of non-breeding birds. Only the breeding performance of kittiwakes at the Isle of May appeared related to variation in local sandeel abundance. Simply closing offshore areas close to top predator colonies may not be sufficient to guarantee the long term prospects of predators at these locations.
Data holder:
Marine Scotland
Marine Scotland
Other details | ||
Internal code | Internally assigned metadata identifier | 6161 |
Title | The title is used to provide a brief and precise description of the dataset such as 'Date', 'Originating organisation/programme', 'Location' and 'Type of survey'. All acronyms and abbreviations should be reproduced in full. | Monitoring the Consequences of the Northwestern North Sea Sandeel Fishery Closure |
Alternative title | The purpose of alternative title is to record any additional names by which the dataset may be known. | Scottish Marine and Freshwater Science Volume 1 No 6 |
File Identifier | The File Identifier is a code, preferably a GUID, that is globally unique and remains with the same metadata record even if the record is edited or transferred between portals or tools. | Marine_Scotland_FishDAC_1503 |
Resource Identifier | This is the code assigned by the data owner. | Marine_Scotland_FishDAC_1503 |
Resource type | The resource type will likely be a dataset but could also be a series (collection of datasets with a common specification) or a service. | dataset |
Start date | This describes the date the resource starts. This may only be the year if month and day are not known | 2010-04-01 |
End date | This describes the date the resource ends. This may only be the year if month and day are not known | 2010-04-30 |
Spatial resolution | This describes the spatial resolution of the dataset or the spatial limitations of the service. | 55000.00 |
Spatial resolution unit | This describes the unit of spatial resolution which for distance must be metres. | http://standards.iso.org/ittf/PubliclyAvailableStandards/ISO_19139_Schemas/resources/uom/gmxUom.xml#m |
Frequency of updates | This describes the frequency with which the resource is modified or updated i.e. a monitoring programme that samples once per year has a frequency that is described as 'annually'. | not planned |
Abstract | The abstract provides a clear and brief statement of the content of the resource. | By 1997 sandeel abundance on the Wee Bankie was already depressed as a result of fishing activities, and continuation of the fishery up to 1999 caused further declines. As a precautionary measure to safeguard marine top predators, particularly seabirds at internationally important colonies in and around the Firth of Forth, an area off the east coast of Scotland, from Rattray Head to St Abbs, was closed to industrial fishing for sandeels in 2000. High levels of recruitment in 1999 and 2000, combined with a lack of any significant fishing activity in 1999, resulted in an immediate and substantial increase in the biomass of sandeels on the Wee Bankie grounds in 2000; the first year of the sandeel closure. Since 2001, sandeel biomass has steadily declined to levels in 2007 that were similar to those observed in 1997 and 1998 when the sandeel fishery in the area was active. In the absence of sustained recruitment, consumption by marine top predators, along with other causes of natural mortality, have exceeded growth production in the population. Closing the area to fishing has not been sufficient to ensure high abundances of sandeels in the area. Recruitment of young sandeels, at or above long-term average levels, is also necessary, and since this is primarily governed by natural process, this may be beyond the capacity of fisheries management alone to achieve. Variation in the abundance and feeding ecology of gadoid predators in the study area was unrelated to variation in sandeel abundance and so remained unaffected by closure of the fishery. Numbers of guillemots, razorbills, puffins and kittiwakes recorded at sea in the study area all appeared to increase with closure of the fishery, and then subsequently to decline again as local sandeel abundance declined. The increase in auk abundance at sea may well have resulted from an influx of non-breeding birds. Only the breeding performance of kittiwakes at the Isle of May appeared related to variation in local sandeel abundance. Simply closing offshore areas close to top predator colonies may not be sufficient to guarantee the long term prospects of predators at these locations. |
Lineage | Lineage includes the background information, history of the sources of data, data quality statements and methods. | The study area covered most of two ICES statistical rectangles, 41E7 and 41E8, between latitudes 56o 00’N and 56o 30’N and longitudes 003o 00’W and 001o 00’W (Figure 3.1). Fishery-independent acoustic, and demersal trawl surveys were undertaken using the Scottish Fisheries Research Vessels Clupea (up to and including 2007) and Alba na Mara (from 2008 onwards). All acoustic and demersal trawl survey work was carried out between 0300h and 1500h GMT between late May and early July of each year from 1997 to 2009, apart from 2004 when acoustic and demersal trawl survey work was not undertaken. Predatory fish biomass in the study area was assessed using the demersal trawl surveys and applying an identical methodology as for assessing sandeel, herring and sprat local biomass. Numbers of seabird predators using the study area was assessed using a variable width (150m to 300m, depending on weather and sea state conditions) transect to one side of the vessel while the ship was engaged in acoustic survey passage. |
Related keywords | ||
Keyword | General subject area(s) associated with the resource, uses multiple controlled vocabularies | Marine Environmental Data and Information Network |
General subject area(s) associated with the resource, uses multiple controlled vocabularies | Fisheries and aquaculture | |
General subject area(s) associated with the resource, uses multiple controlled vocabularies | Fisheries | |
General subject area(s) associated with the resource, uses multiple controlled vocabularies | Bird taxonomy-related counts | |
General subject area(s) associated with the resource, uses multiple controlled vocabularies | Fish and shellfish catch statistics | |
General subject area(s) associated with the resource, uses multiple controlled vocabularies | Fish biomass in water bodies | |
Geographical coverage | ||
North | The northern-most limit of the data resource in decimal degrees | 56.5 |
East | The eastern-most limit of the data resource in decimal degrees | -1 |
South | The southern-most limit of the data resource in decimal degrees | 56 |
West | The western-most limit of the data resource in decimal degrees | -3 |
Regional sea | 41E7 | |
41E8 | ||
Responsible organisations | ||
Role | The point of contact is person or organisation with responsibility for the creation and maintenance of the metadata for the resource. | pointOfContact |
Organisation name | Marine Scotland | |
Phone | +44 (0)1224 876 544 | |
Role | The point of contact is person or organisation with responsibility for the creation and maintenance of the metadata for the resource. | pointOfContact |
Organisation name | Marine Scotland | |
Phone | +44 (0)1224 876 544 | |
Delivery point | Marine Scotland Science, Marine Laboratory, 375 Vcitoria Road | |
Postal code | AB11 9DB | |
City | Aberdeen | |
Country | United Kingdom | |
Role | The originator is the person or organisation who created, collected or produced the resource. | originator |
Organisation name | Marine Scotland | |
Phone | +44 (0)1224 876 544 | |
Delivery point | Marine Scotland Science, Marine Laboratory, 375 Vcitoria Road | |
Postal code | AB11 9DB | |
City | Aberdeen | |
Country | United Kingdom | |
Role | The custodian is the person or organisation that accepts responsibility for the resource and ensures appropriate care and maintenance. If a dataset has been lodged with a Data Archive Centre for maintenance then this organisation is be entered here. | custodian |
Organisation name | Marine Scotland | |
Individual name | Rasmussen, Jens | |
Phone | +44 (0)1224 876 544 | |
Delivery point | Marine Scotland Science, Marine Laboratory, 375 Vcitoria Road | |
Postal code | AB11 9DB | |
City | Aberdeen | |
Country | United Kingdom | |
Role | The custodian is the person or organisation that accepts responsibility for the resource and ensures appropriate care and maintenance. If a dataset has been lodged with a Data Archive Centre for maintenance then this organisation is be entered here. | custodian |
Organisation name | Marine Scotland | |
Individual name | Mcgregor, Helen | |
Phone | +44 (0)1224 876 544 | |
Delivery point | Marine Scotland Science, Marine Laboratory, 375 Vcitoria Road | |
Postal code | AB11 9DB | |
City | Aberdeen | |
Country | United Kingdom | |
Resource locators | ||
Locator URL | Web address (URL) that links to the resource | https://dx.doi.org/10.7489/1503-1 |
Locator name | Name of the web resource | DOI:https://dx.doi.org/10.7489/1503-1 |
Locator function | Code that describes the function of the resource. ISO function code chosen from ISO 19115-1 Codelist | download |
Dataset constraints | ||
20 Limitations on Public Access - Access constraints | license | |
21 Conditions for Access and Use - Use limitation | This states any constraints on use of the data. Multiple conditions can be recorded for different parts of the data resource. If no conditions apply, then `No condtions apply` is recorded. This uses free text. | Open Government License (http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/) |
Version info | ||
Date of publication | The publication date of the resource or if previously unpublished the date that the resource was made publicly available via the MEDIN network. | 1900-01-01 |
Harvest date | The date which this record has been (re)harvested from the provider. | 2024-04-21 |
Metadata date | The date when the content of this metadata record was last updated. | 2014-10-21 |
Metadata standard name | The name of the metadata standard used to create this metadata | MEDIN Discovery Metadata |
Metadata standard version | The version of the MEDIN Discovery Metadata Standard used to create the metadata record | Version 2.3.7 |