Blonde ray

The population of blonde ray in the Central and Southern North Sea and Eastern English Channel is above MSY Btrigger, and fishing is within sustainable limits.This stock was benchmarked in 2023. Spawning-stock biomass has been increasing since 2008 and is currently high, above MSY Btrigger.Fishing pressure on the stock has been below FMSY since 2006. ICES advises that when the MSY approach is applied, catches in 2024 and 2025 should be no more than 1,262 and 1,209 tonnes, respectively. This is a 561% increase in advice due to the stock benchmark moving this from an ICES category 3 to category 2 stock. Blonde ray is often discarded and it is not known how this increase in advice will impact discard rates for this stock.Blonde ray is also taken in recreational fisheries, and the retained catches are unquantified.

Blonde ray is a vulnerable species and management needs to be more precautionary. The joint TAC in place is not a suitable management method.There is no management plan in place for blonde ray in this area. Demersal elasmobranchs are usually caught as bycatch in the mixed demersal fisheries for roundfish and flatfish. Species identification issues between blonde ray and spotted ray may affect landings, observer and survey data.In 1999, a common Total Allowable Catch (TAC) for 'skates and rays' was first introduced. Five regional quotas are in place for the group of skates and rays, rather than for the individual species. This method of management has been deemed as unsuitable for protecting individual species, but species-specific quotas may also lead to discarding. In 2023, the TAC for skates and rays were set as follows:1,764 tonnes for ICES areas 2.a and 4 (68% UK)48 tonnes for ICES area 3.a9,797 tonnes for ICES areas 6.a, 6.b, 7a-c, and 7e-k (30% UK)1,537 tonnes for ICES area 7.d (16% UK)5,519 tonnes for ICES areas 8 and 9 (0.2% UK)In addition, in North Sea waters, vessels larger than 15m, are only permitted to land a maximum of 25% of the catch (whole weight) as skates and rays.Skates and rays caught in the Northwest waters (ICES subareas 6 and 7) and North Sea waters (ICES subareas 2a, 3a and 4) with all fishing gears, are exempt from the landing obligation, based on their high survivability rates. Any skates and rays that are discarded are required to be released immediately and below the sea surface.There is no official minimum conservation reference size (MCRS) in place but some of the UK's Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authorities (IFCAs) have an MCRS of 40cm disc width for skates and rays.Both the EU and UK have fishery management measures in place, which can include catch limits, targets for population sizes and fishing mortality, and controls on what fishing gear can be used and where. In the EU, compliance with regulations has been variable, and there are ongoing challenges with implementing some of them. There was a target for fishing to be at Maximum Sustainable Yield by 2020, but this was not achieved.In the UK, it is too early to tell how effective management is, as the Fisheries Act only came into force in January 2021. The Act requires the development of Fisheries Management Plans (FMPs) (replacing EU Multi-Annual Plans) but there are no details yet on how and when these will be developed. FMPs have the potential to be very important tools for managing UK fisheries, although data limitations may delay them for some stocks. MCS is keen to see FMPs for all commercially exploited stocks, especially where stocks are depleted, that include:Targets for fishing pressure and biomass, and additional management when those targets are not being metTimeframes for stock recoveryTechnologies such as Remote Electronic Monitoring (REM) to support data collection and improve transparency and accountabilityConsideration of wider environmental impacts of the fishery

Beam trawls have significant impact on the seabed, including damage to benthic communities and vulnerable marine habitats. Bycatch can be high and may include vulnerable species.Blonde rays inhabit offshore sandbanks and coastal shallows and occur over sandy, mud and gravel substrates. Blonde ray in this area are caught predominantly by beam trawls (60%). They are also caught by other bottom trawls (15%), set nets (13%) and other gears (12%). Around 24% of blonde ray catches are discarded and it is thought that most blonde rays below 45cm are discarded by English vessels.Demersal trawls have contact with the seabed, resulting in penetration and abrasion of habitat features. The impact of trawling on the seabed depends on where trawling happens, and on what scale. For example, habitats that are used to natural disturbance through tides and waves are less sensitive to impacts. Areas not used to mobile towed gears are typically more sensitive.Beam trawling is one of the least selective and high impact methods of fishing. Bream trawling, especially using chain-mat gear, is damaging to the seabed and is known to have a significant impact on benthic communities, although less so on soft substrates. Heavy gear tends to have a higher seabed impact than otter trawling. Seabed penetration depends on the sediment, and varies between 1cm and 8cm.Beam trawling has the potential to catch a wide variety of non-target species. Common bycatch includes mixed crabs, urchins, lesser spotted dogfish, nursehound, dragonet, starry ray and smelt. Endangered, threatened and protected (ETP) species including angel shark, blue skate and flapper skate have been depleted through fishing in this area.It's difficult to avoid catching skates and rays in nets and because of their peculiar shape and size, it's also difficult for them to escape the net once captured. Therefore, selectivity programmes are in place to reduce skate and ray catches and their survival rates. Discard rates of skates and rays can vary dramatically (30 - 70%), depending on the marketability and management measures in place. Nearly all skates below 30cm total length are discarded by English vessels.Bycatch can include juvenile skate as they can hatch from their egg cases between 10-20 cm total length and therefore, may be able to escape through the nets. The survival rate of juveniles upon discarding is extremely variable and depends on the fishing and handling methods used to capture them. Elasmobranchs have the potential for relatively high survival rates because they do not have swim bladders, and thereby are not impacted by water pressure changes. They can also have thick and abrasive skins and thorns for protection, and some have spiracles and a buccal-pump respiratory which excretes a mucus, allowing the skate or ray to ventilate and acquire oxygen when out of the water. Inshore and coastal fisheries using trawls, longlines, gillnets and tangle nets generally show low at-vessel mortality. There are a lack of studies available on long-term skate and ray survival when they are released into the wild.Habitat protection measures across European waters include Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). If those MPAs were found to be subjected to bottom trawling, MCS would assign a default red rating unless there is evidence (e.g. through environmental impact assessment) indicating the activity does not damage the integrity of the site. EU regulations prohibit bottom trawling below 800m and restrict activities between 400-800m. Spatial management is continually being developed, which will restrict the footprint of this gear on the seabed. However, there remains some uncertainty about the location of some sensitive seabed habitats so these remain at risk.To improve monitoring and reporting of fishing activity, MCS would like to see remote electronic monitoring (REM) with cameras implemented, used and enforced. To reduce the impacts of fishing on the marine environment we would like to see a just transition to the complete removal of bottom towed gear from offshore Marine Protected Areas designated to protect the seabed. We also want to see reduction and mitigation of environmental impacts including emissions and blue carbon habitat damage.

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