Appropriate Assessments Case Study 4_Cockle dredging in the Solway

Summary

Cumbria Sea Fisheries Committee (CSFC) applied to open a cockle bed situated on a subtidal sandbank on the south side of the England/Scotland boundary line in the upper Solway Firth, close to an area known as North and Middle Banks. The proposal was to allow the removal by hydraulic suction dredging of a 410 tonne (25% of the stock) TAC of cockles above the CSFC minimum removal size from December 2005 to mid-April 2006. The maximum blade width of the dredge would not exceed one metre and the minimum bar spacing would be 20mm. The riddle drum was also subject to specification. The cockle bed fell within the Solway Firth Special Area of Conservation (SAC) site, which was designated for its estuaries, mudflats and sandflats that are not covered by seawater at low tide, and its sandbanks, which are slightly covered by seawater at all times; and within the Upper Solway Special Protected Area (SPA) and Ramsar Site, designated for its internationally important populations of regularly occurring Annex 1 species, assemblage of waterfowl, populations of regularly occurring migratory species, and over-wintering populations of migratory waterfowl. Suction dredging can potentially impact on sandbank features within these European marine sites (EMS). Given this, preliminary discussions with English Nature (EN) took place in October 2005 and it was agreed that the opening of the cockle bed would require an appropriate assessment under the Habitats Directive. To support the Appropriate Assessment findings, CSFC used a 2005 preliminary sublittoral survey conducted by Dr Jane Lancaster, a consultant marine biologist scientific to determine the extent of the proposed fishery. They also used a 15-year time-series of cockle stock data for the Solway Firth, which indicated a significant stock variation year on year.

Publication date

01 January 2007