Beyond the horizon: Evidence of management deficiencies in UK offshore protected areas

Abstract

Management effectiveness assessments are crucial to improve the quality of Protected Areas (PA), however, offshore ecosystems suffer from a lack of accessibility and funding and are under-evaluated. As a result, the status of UK offshore protected areas is unclear. Here we evaluate how effectively these are being managed using the Management Effectiveness Tracking Tool (METT) which has never been applied to UK offshore protected areas. As bottom fishing is one of the primary threats to marine habitats and ecosystems, scores were evaluated in the context of bottom fishing restrictions. Overall, the management of the 76 UK PAs averaged 37.7 %, below global averages from previous studies. Across the four METT categories, PAs scored best in their ‘Design and Planning’; however, this did not translate into outcomes, with deficiencies in ‘Decision-making Arrangements’, ‘Delivery of PA Objectives’ and ‘Management Systems and Processes’. This raises concerns over whether these PAs are ‘paper parks’. Only larger and older PAs had significantly higher management effectiveness. Further, just 11 % of the total protected offshore area is strictly protected from bottom fishing and trawling. The deficiencies identified in this study are a result of both the original design and current management of the offshore PA network in the UK and signal the importance of solutions such as increasing integrated and adaptive management, implementing climate change and connectivity considerations and introducing buffer zones.