Download The Dogger Bank case study: a unique place

North Sea
case studies
VECTORS Fact sheet series
Vectors of change in European Marine
Ecosystems and their Environmental
and Socio-Economic Impacts
The VECTORS project seeks to develop
integrated, multidisciplinary research - based
understanding of changes taking place in our
marine environment, the mechanisms for
them and the ecological impacts expected
from them. VECTORS will examine how
these changes may affect the range of goods
and services provided by the oceans, the
ensuing socio - economic impacts and some
of the measures that could be developed to
reduce or adapt to these changes.
Regional Seas Case Studies
VECTORS studies three regional seas, the
North Sea, Baltic and Western Mediterranean,
as research areas for investigating the impacts
of human activities and how multiple pressures
can have combined and interacting effects
for the marine environment, society and
economy. Within each of the regional seas
several case studies are taking place to allow
more targeted investigation of the causes
and impacts of these pressures in particular
environments. This series of fact sheets
provides an overview of each case study and
the varying scientific approaches used.
The Dogger Bank case study:
a unique place owned by four countries
The Dogger Bank is an environmentally and economically important area
due to its high biodiversity, important fishing grounds and geographical
location within the exclusive economic zones of four countries. This case
study is investigating the ecological, economic, and societal costs and
trade-offs of management options in this complex area.
VECTORS aims at understanding the long-term changes in the communities
on Dogger Bank, particularly the distribution and productivity of commercially
targeted fish species. This is being achieved
through several approaches:
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Analysis of long-term data sets
A targeted research cruise
Statistical analysis of fish and environmental
data
Modelling of fish habitat preferences
Modelling of fishing fleet activity
The Dogger Bank provides a complex case study
from an economic viewpoint, making it a region
where international, European and national
policies need to be harmonised. Historically
the area has been used as a rich fishing ground
primarily by Dutch, German, Danish and UK
fleets and competition for space is intense and
increasing. The issues being investigated by
VECTORS are:
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The impacts and benefits of proposed renewable energy developments,
for example FOREWIND are proposing the development of a wind farm
in the UK sector of the Dogger Bank, covering an area of 8,660 km2.
The effects of other economic interests including oil and gas, aggregate
extraction, and shipping.
Adaptability of fisheries management
The biodiversity of the Dogger Bank provides benefits for people and society
by providing food, wildlife watching opportunities and even impacts on our
climate. As marine life changes, due to increased pressures from humans,
these services and their values will change. In VECTORS ecologists and
socio-economists are carrying out studies to understand the current value
of the services that biodiversity in the Dogger Bank provides and how they
might change in the future. This is a comparatively new area of marine
science and VECTORS is developing and improving the methodologies.
North Sea case studies
Drivers of change in the North Sea include
shipping, pollution, renewable energy
generation, fishing, aquaculture, sand and
aggregate extraction. These activities can
result in changes in species distribution,
impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem
function and a decrease in fishing revenue,
resources and tourism.
Fishing is an important
economic activity in
the Dogger Bank
Contact
Project coordinator: Mel Austen
Project manager: Jenny Lockett
VECTORS Project Office
VECTORS
V1: Feb 2013
Coordinated by Plymouth Marine Laboratory
[email protected], www.marine-vectors.eu
Why
The Dogger Bank is a region of particular ecological importance as it comprises a transition zone between the quite
distinct ecosystems in the northern and the southern North Sea. Overall, the northern North Sea is characterised by a
higher diversity of fish species and a lower diversity of benthic invertebrate species than the shallower - typically less
than 50 m deep - southern areas. Due to its position as a transition zone, biodiversity on the Dogger Bank is high, and
communities are distinct at fine regional scales.
The Dogger Bank provides a test case for how nature conservation legislation is implemented in an offshore marine
area. The UK, Germany and The Netherlands are in the process of designating their respective parts of the Dogger Bank
as Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) for sandbanks which are slightly covered by water all of the time, whilst Denmark has
opted not to designate their area since they consider the Danish parts of the bank to be too deep to classify them as
sandbanks. At the present time, several EU Member States pursue marine spatial planning, both on the national and the
international level on the Dogger Bank (Figure 1).
Where
The Dogger Bank is a shallow sandbank, covering an area of 18,700 km2 in
the southern part of the North Sea, where water depths range from 18 m to
63 m. It is an outstanding region in many aspects, including a high diversity of
fish species, its use as a fishing ground, and the area is of growing interest for
economic activities from other sectors.
DK
UK
NL
GER
Figure 1: Location of the Dogger Bank and the Exclusive Economic
Zones of the United Kingdom (UK), The Netherlands (NL), Germany
(GER) and Denmark (DK) (Source: Hommes et al., 2012).
How
To understand some of the economic consequences of vectors of change we are using a bio-economic model, Fishrent,
that links understanding of the biology of fish to the economy of the fisheries that depend on them as well as the wider
marine economy. VECTORS is using Fishrent to understand how
competition for space between the economic sectors of fisheries
(for flatfish and sandeel), renewable energy extraction and oil as
well as the space needed for marine protected areas that support
conservation and fisheries management changes how the Dogger
Bank supports the marine economy.
Governance issues of relevance to the Dogger Bank have been
reviewed as part of a wider review of policy and legal frameworks
at the international, European and national levels in relation to
VECTORS thematic topics. The Dogger Bank provides the focus
for a case study which contributes towards a better understanding
of the needs and requirements of local stakeholders and conflict
resolution attempts in an offshore marine area, where economic
activities are currently increasing.
Fishing trawlers
The future
VECTORS will use the information obtained on the mechanisms of change in species distribution and productivity in
order to predict possible future distribution of fish species of commerical importance. This will again be done through
a wide array of models, which will be used to predict the status of the ecosystem under different scenarios of future
conditions, particularly in relation to climate change and human activities on the Dogger Bank - namely: fisheries under
altered conditions of species distribution, and of fishermen’s access to fishing grounds through area closures for nature
conservation or wind farm developments.
VECTORS
VECTORS is a European project (26455) supported within
Themes 2, 5, 6 and 7 of the European Commission
Seventh Framework Programme
Further information
The creator of this fact sheet is
Daryl Burdon, University of Hull, UK.
E-mail: [email protected]