Impact case study database

Howell’s research has directly contributed to a change in policy, resulting in a ban on deep-water bottom trawling below 800m in European Waters (2017). Howell’s research has also supported the implementation of multiple policies relating to marine environmental management. Her research has directly resulted in: 1) the designation of Marine Protected Areas in UK waters, European waters, and on the High Seas; and 2) the development of the first ever biologically relevant habitat classification system for the deep sea, enabling a unified approach to deep-sea habitat mapping across Europe, and providing the base map for all future spatial management of the European deep-sea marine area.

Change in policy

Deep-sea bottom trawling, where the gear drags along the seabed, is widely accepted to be amongst the most destructive forms of fishing in use today and the subject of extensive scientific concern and international debate over the past 10 years. Since 2004, the General Assembly of the United Nations (UNGA) has repeatedly called on countries to take urgent action to either regulate deep-sea fishing, in particular deep-sea bottom trawling, to protect vulnerable marine ecosystems, or to stop deep-sea fishing on the high seas. United Nations General Assembly resolution 61/105 (2006) requires member states and competent authorities to close areas to bottom fishing where vulnerable marine ecosystems (VMEs) are known or are likely to occur based on the best available scientific information. In addition, member states are required to ensure that fishing activities do not proceed unless conservation and management measures have been established to prevent significant adverse impacts on VMEs (UNGA61/105).

Howell’s modelled maps of VME distribution were a key piece of scientific evidence used by a non-governmental organisation, the Deep-Sea Conservation Coalition, to lobby for changes to EU regulations for the management of deep-sea fisheries. Following Howell’s speech [5.1] at an invite-only cross party House of Commons event in January of 2015, ministers adopted a position supporting a ban of bottom trawling below 800 meters, a compromise between those rejecting any limit and the body of scientific evidence, which included Howell’s research, supporting a shallower 600 meter limit. A political agreement was finally reached by negotiators from the EU Council and Parliament at the end of June 2016, which was subsequently endorsed by the Council of Ministers, and in December 2016 approved by the vote of the Parliament. In January 2017, a new EU regulation on deep-sea fishing came into force including a ban on bottom trawling below 800 meters in EU waters, and an obligation to close deep-sea areas to bottom fishing to protect vulnerable marine ecosystems [5.2]. The measures adopted in the new deep-sea fishing regulation represent a considerable improvement to the previous regime. The policy change has protected approximately 143,000 km2 of fishable seabed (800-1500m), as well as approximately 70 seamounts fished by EU vessels in international waters.

Implementation of policies

Following the 1992 International Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), national and international legislation has been put in place to improve sustainable management of the marine environment. Howell’s applied research has directly informed and shaped implementation of global, regional and national policies such as the Oslo-Paris Convention (OSPAR), the European Habitats and Species Directive, the European Marine Strategy Framework Directive, as well as the UK Marine Act. These overarching policies have been implemented in the following specific ways:

Howell’s mapping research underpinned the designation of 12 deep-sea Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) by the UK and Scottish Governments and devolved administrations in the period spanning 2013-2019. In September 2020, it underpinned the designation of the West of Scotland MPA, the largest MPA in Europe [5.3]. Collectively, these MPAs total 171,268 km², 19% of the total UK marine protected area network, and 7% of the UK’s marine area.

Howell’s research was used by the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) to provide advice to the North East Atlantic Fisheries Commission (NEAFC) recommending an area closure to bottom-trawl fisheries in the Hatton-Rockall Basin. This recommendation was adopted in 2014, thus Howell’s research has directly resulted in the establishment of a fisheries closure in the Hatton-Rockall Basin, NE Atlantic, by the NEAFC [5.4 & 5.5]. This closure protects vulnerable marine ecosystems from the impacts of bottom trawling activities.

Howell’s research established a biologically meaningful habitat classification system for the NE Atlantic deep sea, which subsequently has been adopted by the UK Government and the EU in their development of both a revised single UK marine habitat map and a unified European marine habitat map [5.6]. These maps have supported the development of EU policies protecting the marine environment, informed states' achievements against policy obligations, fed into governmental assessments, and been utilised in marine spatial planning over the period August 2013-2017 [5.7].

Howell’s maps informed the case for support proposing two areas of the North Atlantic as ‘Ecologically and Biologically Significant Areas (EBSA)’ under the international Convention on Biological Diversity. Through identifying these areas as EBSAs, the UN recognises their ecological importance, and these areas are now being considered for protection. Delays to the Conference of Parties as a result of COVID-19 mean that no decision has yet been taken on this issue [5.8].

Howell’s mapping approaches have been used in the assessment of representative MPA networks on the High Seas as part of the development of regional environmental management plans with respect to deep-sea mining activities. Howell’s research featured in an International Seabed Authority (ISA) workshop in 2019, where it directly highlighted deficiencies in the current MPA network [5.9]. The ISA are now considering whether additional areas of particular environmental interest might be required in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone region of the Pacific. COVID-19 has led to delays in further consideration of these findings by the ISA.