Abstract
During February/March 2020, a consultation took place on a draft guidance document developed by three of the Statutory Nature Conservation Bodies (SNCBs), Joint Nature Conservation Committee, Natural England and Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs, advising on noise management within harbour porpoise SACs. The Southern North Sea Regulators Working Group1 was invited to provide their views on the guidance, request clarifications and provide any additional evidence that might be useful in informing SNCB’s advice. Regulators were also encouraged to consult their stakeholders and provide a collated response. The consultation started on the 3rd February 2020 and ran until the 13th March 2020.
The SNCBs are grateful for the many comprehensive comments received during this consultation. All comments have received due consideration and refinements to the guidance have been made as a result. This report addresses the key comments provided on the evidence base supporting the guidance. It has been organised based on the main themes emerging from all responses. All comments received can be consulted in Appendix 1 and are linked to each theme by a reference number.
There was limited new evidence highlighted through the consultation and therefore the great majority of the comments were addressed in this report through clarification of points made in the background document or guidance. This included:
-A more comprehensive explanation of the ASCOBANS conservation objective, the carrying capacity concept and the choice of the 20/10% thresholds;
-A description of the evidence behind the seasonal differences in densities which justifies the seasonal approach to enhanced noise management in the SAC;
-A review of the evidence, and discussion on whether spreading noise out over a longer period of time could cause more or less of an effect than having more noise over a shorter time;
-Further advice on the distinction between the protection of site integrity and the protection of populations;
-A more detailed justification of why the SNCBs did not advise on the setting of fixed noise thresholds (such as in German waters);
-Further clarification of which activities are and are not covered by the guidance and why;
-Further detail on the choice of recommended effective deterrent ranges (EDRs).
Some of the comments led to small changes to the guidance document. These included:
-More clarity to which activities the guidance applies, added flexibility to the upper frequency limit acknowledging harbour porpoise hearing range;
-Further detail on the reasoning behind the seasonal areas;
-Added references on harbour porpoise ability to compensate for short periods of fasting;
-Clarified how the carrying capacity concept and the ASCOBANS objective were used to guide the definition of significant disturbance and choice of spatio-temporal thresholds;
-Revised some of the EDRs in line with further references emerging since the last version of the guidance and provided more detailed rationale for the recommended EDRs.
There were also several editorial changes made to the guidance and background documents, final versions of which were published in May 2020. The harbour porpoise SAC noise guidance will be reviewed regularly to ensure it is kept up to date with emerging evidence.
Whilst the consultation did not focus on implementation aspects, we welcome the comments provided (see Appendix 2). These will help inform future discussions of the Southern North Sea Regulators Working Group.