Fisheries

Fishing has a long history in all European sea basins, and is of particular importance to coastal communities, both economically, socially, and as a food source. 

Capture fisheries have direct and indirect impacts on the marine environment and ecosystems notably through removal of biomass. However, thanks to innovations and regulations put in place over the last few decades within the EU, the state of fish stocks is progressively recovering [1], and conservation measures are expected to result in stock rebuilding.

The sector is regulated by the Common fisheries policy (CFP) [2], that aims at sustainably managing European fishing fleets and conserving fish stocks. Additionally, the Marine Action Plan aims at keeping fish stocks to sustainable levels and reducing the overall impact of fishing[3].

The sector is still facing major challenges and it has been in constant decline in volume for more than 20 years. This is largely due to the sensitivity of the business to the cost of fuel oil, reinforcing the need to decarbonise the sector as quickly as possible. 

Offshore Renewable Energy

Offshore Renewable Energy (or Marine Renewable Energy - MRE) is a major source of green energy that significantly contributes to the EU’s 2050 Energy Strategy and the European Green Deal. The EU therefore set ambitious objectives for the marine renewables industry, that will need to scale up five times by 2030 and 25 times by 2050 to support the Green Deal’s objectives[4]. 

MRE technologies can be broadly divided into 7 categories [5]:

• Offshore wind power: Electricity is produced by turbines, which harness energy from the wind blowing over stretches of sea;
• Wave power: capturing the movement of sea waves and turning it into electrical energy;
• Tidal power: harnessing energy from tides and converting it into electrical energy;
• Stream Energy: harnessing kinetic energy from currents and turning it into electrical energy;
• Osmotic power: Collecting the energy released by the difference in salt concentrations when a river flows into the sea;
• Ocean energy thermal conversion: using the temperature difference between deep water and the surface to generate electricity;
• Marine biomass: algae could be used to produce fuels.

These technologies have very different degrees of development and maturity: some are already very advanced and widely operated worldwide while others are still at research level. As Offshore Wind Farms (OWF) are the most developed technology when it comes to MRE, they will constitute the main example of OREI in the following pages.

For more information about EU blue economy sectors please visit the EU Blue Economy Observatory website. 

For more European statistics and data you can also visit the Eurostat website

To prevent the risk of collisions, and to preserve the integrity of infrastructure and the safety of sailors, most countries have restricted or banned navigation within wind farms and in a buffer safety zone, often extending hundreds of meters around them. Within these safety zones, countries apply different regulations to define fisheries restrictions and permissions relating to fishing gears, vessel lengths and passage regulations. The UK, Sweden, Denmark, and Norway are the only European countries that have not defined statutory safety zones around offshore installations during operation [6]. 

The fear of spatial exclusion is one of the main reasons for the fishing industry's reservations about the development of offshore wind farms. The latter may indeed imply a loss of access to traditional fishing grounds, with potentially significant economic impacts, both in terms of lost earnings in the area in question and additional costs associated with access to new, more distant areas. This could especially be true for small-scale fisheries, which are more dependent on local near-shore resources, and which remain vital to most coastal communities [7]. In addition, offshore grid and export cables are hardly compatible with the use of trawls. The displacement of fishing activities to adjacent areas could also generate additional pressure (“knock-on effect”) on resources, and on competition between the fishermen themselves. Assessments of the economic, socio-economic and socio-cultural effects of offshore renewables on fisheries are however still lacking in recent empirical studies [8].

Detailed knowledge of the spatio-temporal dynamics of these activities is essential. To date, improving this knowledge is a major challenge, particularly with regards to small-scale fishing, which is highly dynamic and not very predictable, and above all is not subject to the obligation to carry transponders (Vessel Monitoring System - VMS), which makes it extremely difficult to map.

The construction, operation and decommissioning of offshore wind farms generates environmental impacts that could have immediate and long-term consequences for fish and shellfish stocks in and around the farms. 

During the construction phase, alongside increased turbidity, underwater noise from pile driving could potentially cause temporary or permanent hearing damage in a wide radius and consequently the loss of orientation, which would prevent fish from finding food, reaching breeding and spawning areas and locating mates. During the operation phase, significant uncertainties remain, but infrasonic noise from rotating blades could repel fish, as well as marine mammal species, and permanent continuous electromagnetic fields could change the behaviour of electro-sensitive species and species sensitive to magnetic fields [9].

Complex to quantify, and highly dependent on local conditions, these impacts could affect neighbouring fishing activities by disturbing the spatial distribution and abundance of commercially fished marine species, or sensitive breeding and nursery grounds, thereby reinforcing the sector's concerns. Additional research into the effects of OFWs and other offshore renewable energy systems on the marine environment and fisheries resources is therefore needed [10]

Designing fishing compatible OWF

The design of offshore wind farms that allow for certain fishing activities within them is one of the main avenues to reconcile the two activities. 

In the North Sea, the co-location of OWF and passive fisheries has been discussed and implemented, with case studies for brown crabs and European lobsters with pots and traps recorded in the UK, Germany and the Netherlands [11]. With the new Belgian Marine Spatial Plan for 2020–2026 (Royal Decree MSP-2020), passive fishery is allowed in the Noordhinder North and South wind farm areas (Zones 2 and 3). However, implementation is still rare as a result of the lack of official frameworks on which insurance regimes could be properly defined, discouraging most fishers from using these waters. The possibility to increase the spacing between turbines to provide sufficient navigation corridors for active fisheries operation is currently being studied in some countries, notably in France [12]. It could, where oceanic and meteorological conditions permit, eliminate the spatial exclusion that currently affects most offshore wind farms. However, the compromises associated with changes to the design of wind farms could have an impact on their performance and profitability, which needs to be precisely evaluated.

Protecting cables from being hooked by trawls and anchors

Such as for communication cables, protective measures are often implemented for submarine energy cables:  cables will generally be buried into the seabed, and either armoured or covered with rocks or mattresses where the seabed substrates are unsuitable for burial [13]. However, cables can be scoured out by tides and currents or moved by anchors and fishing gear, and therefore would ideally require real-time monitoring for detection of exposed sections. 

In Germany for example, legislation requires a minimum burial depth of 1,5 m. This depth must be increased if the cable is located in a heavily fished zone [14]. Moreover, if the cable is located in a zone known for rough seas or dense traffic, this depth must also be increased in case the vessel has to undertake anchor maneuvers in emergency. This is the case for example in the German bright (and more specifically in the Terschelling area), where the traffic Separation Scheme (TSS), used to safely manage the dense traffic, prescribes a burial depth of 3 m below the seabed [15].

The increased use of computer software linked to positioning systems such as GPS represents an opportunity to inform fishermen about cables in their surroundings but also to provide warnings if the vessel gets too close to the cable route. For example, Iceland uses a system where the cable coordinates are sent electronically to all surrounding local fishing vessels [16].

Allowing for safe-passage routes

In cases where authorising fishing activities with the wind farms themselves remains impossible, the creation of navigation corridors, allowing the passage of vessels across the wind farm, would be a major step to encourage the coexistence of these two activities. Already implemented in some countries, subject to favourable oceanic and meteorological conditions, and for smaller vessels, this solution minimizes the economic impacts associated with increased travel times to fishing areas. However, it requires the establishment of clear rules along with a detailed mapping of navigational hazards (including dropped objects during construction [17]) and the collaboration of insurance companies, without which financial risks to fishermen may discourage them from using these routes.

Schedule construction phases outside the main fishing seasons

In order to limit the disruption caused during the construction and decommissioning phases of the wind farms, which can restrict access to fishing activities over large areas, and temporarily affect the distribution of fish due to the associated noise pollution, scheduling the work outside the ecologically sensitive and peak fishing periods is an additional factor in coexistence [18]. This necessary coordination is, however, dependent on good communication between the two sectors.

The maritime spatial planning process can provide strategic solutions for the co-existence of OWF and fisheries. The MSP process should permit the selection of development sites that minimizes the exclusion of fisheries from most important fishing grounds, as well as sensitive habitats of importance for fish stocks (spawning and nursery areas), while maintaining the cost efficiency of offshore wind farms. 

Better knowledge of fisheries spatiotemporal dynamics

To avoid siting wind farms in areas that are particularly important for fishing activities, it is essential to have a more precise understanding of the spatiotemporal dynamics of fishing activities, particularly small-scale fisheries, which are invisible to modern monitoring systems. To this end, initiatives aimed at overcoming the lack of spatial data by using participatory mapping approaches have been launched in several member states (e.g., in France with Valpena, in Scotland with ScotMap). In addition to the knowledge these methods can provide, they can also help to strengthen the involvement of fishermen in planning processes.

Better knowledge of environmental dynamics and impacts from wind farms

To facilitate the coexistence of the two sectors, a thorough understanding of marine ecosystems, particularly those on which fish stocks depend, and how offshore wind farms may affect them, is also essential. This should help to reduce uncertainty in the planning phase and ensure that the positioning of wind farms is in line with the need to protect the resources on which the fishing industry depends. A project is undergoing in France to improve knowledge on impacts of OFW on fish stocks [19].

On the other hand, a better understanding of potential positive impacts from OWF on fish stocks would improve the co-existence of both sectors. The reserve effect and associated spill-over, as well as the reef effect have been demonstrated in laboratories, and could provide great opportunities for fishers. However, they remain difficult to prove in natural conditions to date [20]. Research is currently undergoing to document and eventually further enhance these positive effects. 

Better inclusion of fishermen in the MSP Process

To maximize the coexistence of the two sectors, it is important to facilitate the integration of fishermen into the planning process. Although to date the sector has been critical about the development of MSP, due to the risks of spatial rearrangement they anticipated, most fishermen now seem convinced of the need to participate actively in the process. A need recognized by all the political leaders in charge of the process. That said, unlike the highly centralized wind energy industry, governance in the fishing sector is more fragmented, federated both by geographical area and by gear type. This makes it more difficult for the sector to speak with one voice. In this respect, planning must ensure the inclusion of all fishing stakeholders, and once again in particular small-scale fishing, for instance by establishing permanent consultation processes. 

These discussion-spaces could also be used to provide information about alternative employment opportunities for fishers [21].