5/7/2023 0 Comments Scallop dredge![]() ![]() We also asked if any of the vessels' skippers had received taxpayers' money through Covid-19 relief grants. The Ferret subsequently asked the Scottish Government if its fisheries agency Marine Scotland could provide details of the incidents including where they took place and the names of boats involved. A report does not mean that illegal activity of any kind has taken place, but they are all investigated.Įnvironment secretary Roseanna Cunningham revealed the figure in an answer to a question tabled in the Scottish Parliament by Mark Ruskell MSP, of the Scottish Greens. It emerged in December that since March 2020 Marine Scotland compliance had received “a number of reports, involving six vessels, in relation to suspected illegal scallop dredging” in MPAs or other closed areas. A further three investigations remain ongoing. The Scottish Government said that of six investigations conducted three were not progressed because key facts relating to the initial reports could not be corroborated. Suspected illegal dredging was also reported around the Treshnish Isles SAC, a remote chain of uninhabited islands and skerries situated in south-west Scotland which support a breeding colony of grey seals.Įlsewhere, incidents were also reported at Enart Bay Seasonal Closure and the Southern Inner Sound Protected Area which is home to flapper skate, off Skye. This has been shown to support resident mature common skate which breed in the area. All rights reserved.Dredgers allegedly targeted the Firth of Lorn, a special area of conservation (SAC) in the Southern Hebrides protected for rocky reef habitats which support species that are “amongst the most diverse in both the UK and Europe”.Īnother incident allegedly took place in the Loch Sunart to Sound of Jura MPA which includes an underwater landscape created by glaciers during the last ice age. Our analysis does not provide any information regarding the fate of these animals.īenthic impact Benthic infauna Mobilisation of sediment Scallop dredges Sediment resuspension Towed fishing gears.Ĭrown Copyright © 2013. There was no difference between the core samples taken before or after towing suggesting that animals mobilised by the dredge resettle in the tow path. The vertical stratification of sediment concentration and of animal numbers in the water column suggests that even if some of these species respond actively to the presence of the dredge, once entrained, they are transported more or less passively in the same way as the larger sediment particles. The species most abundant in the sediment plume either swim actively in the water column or are found in, or on, the upper layers of the substrate, whereas those most abundant in core samples taken from the sediment, but not present in the net samples, are almost all tube-building or deep burrowing. The turbulent wake entrains up to the equivalent of a 1 mm layer of sediment per unit of swept width, although an analysis of the finer particles material implies that the suspended silt material must originate from depths of at least 10 mm. The passage of the scallop dredge is shown to homogenise the seabed, flattening sand ripples. We present the results of experiments to assess the immediate impact of scallop dredging on the seabed sediment and on the inhabiting infauna. ![]()
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