1. I, Dr. Stephen Atkins, c/o North Western and North Wales Sea Fisheries Committee, Lancaster University, Bailrigg, Lancaster, LA1 4YY will state as follows:

2. I am the Chief Executive of the North Western and North Wales Fisheries Committee (NWNWSFC). I have been asked to make this statement in connection with the Fleetwood Fishermen’s Association’s claim for compensation for its members as a result of the construction and operation of the Barrow Offshore Windfarm on the fishing ground known as ‘Between the roughs’. Evidence of the location of this ground has been provided by Fleetwood fishermen. I have also relied on information provided to me by Principal Fishery Officer (2002 – present) Martyn Boyce, who was also previously master of the FPV Aegis (1996-2002) and also Senior Fishery Officer (20 Years) Steve Brown who was previously a fisherman working his family boat out of Fleetwood. Steve Brown has extensive knowledge and experience of the Fleetwood fishing industry and patterns of fishing in the area.

3. The 12 SFCs act as the primary statutory organizations responsible for the management of inshore fisheries (to 6 nm from baseline) in England and Wales. SFCs are established, under the Sea Fisheries (Regulation) Act 1888 since replaced by the Sea Fisheries (Regulation) Act 1966. SFCs are empowered to make byelaws for the management and conservation of their districts’ fisheries and also enforce some national and EU fisheries legislation. SFCs are Parliamentary Bodies comprising local authority members and Ministerial appointees and are responsible to the Secretary of State. SFCs core management function has been supplemented by a more recent amendment inserting a reference to marine environmental purposes in order to allow SFCs to act on grounds other than fisheries management.

4. The NWNWSFC District extends from Haverigg Point, Cumbria, NW England, to Cemaes Head, Ceredigeon, Wales. Enforcement of fisheries regulations is carried out by Fishery Officers throughout the District and aboard the main patrol vessel FPV Aegis a 15m Arran class Pilot launch. FOs have powers of stop and search under PACE and to bring prosecutions. They patrol year round through out the District and keep accurate and comprehensive records of fishing activity and vessel movements to the extent witnessed by them.

5. The fishing grounds in the area of the Barrow windfarm contain 2 distinct fisheries, a static fishery using pots and set nets and a mobile fishery based on trawling. The area to the east is stone and clay seabed and suitable only for set nets and potting activity. To the west, the seabed is sand and suitable for trawling. Fleetwood fishermen have provided evidence of the fished areas.

6. The area ‘Between the roughs’ has historically been a heavily fished area compared with other areas. It is one of the best and most used fishing ground close to Fleetwood, therefore one of the most extensively used, particularly when the weather is poor or threatening. Steve Brown describes the area as a ‘first and last fishing ground for the vessels based at Fleetwood and Barrow when working to the North side of Lune Deep.’ In better weather, boats will go further such as to the Shell flats and Ormond areas. Other areas in Steve Brown’s records include Off Walney Island, Gazoon, W by N of Lune, False Lune and occasionally out to the Pebbles. Fleetwood fishermen will identify the actual positions (lat long) of the most regularly used tows. It is important to understand that Fishermen do not fish the seabed at random, nor do they fish all the seabed. They tend to use the same tows repeatedly for safety reasons. This is shown by the records of Steve Browns fishing career which shows how frequently, a crew will follow the same set of co-ordinates, bearings and shore marks. The Fleetwood fishermen will also provide evidence of the tows they use currently and have used in recent years .

7. An illustration of the way in which the Barrow windfarm interferes with traditional fishing activity is given in the following description by Steve Brown. ‘The action of the tide across the divide between hard and clean ground, produces excellent fishing opportunities at specific states of the tide. For he skilled and experienced inshore trawler man and static gear operator, such area will produce a substantial proportion of their year’s income. Fishing vessels cannot afford to steam over fishing ground without fishing so they work on a ‘get the gear down as soon as possible’ basis. Consequently Fleetwood vessels would be in the Barrow windfarm area at the beginning and end of regular fishing trips. These times would co-inside with the first part of the ebb tide and the last part of the flood. These periods are precisely the times when the fish congregate on the edge of hard ground. Working in this way, the fisherman can obtain a disproportionately high part of his overall earnings from these grounds in short periods. Prime fishing time may be as little as 2x20 minutes in each 12 hour tidal cycle’.

8. Species taken from these fisheries are always of high value. Typically they include large plaice, brill, turbot, lemon sole and rays.

9. Over recent decades, the full Sea Fisheries Committee has met 3-4 times per year and officers report on fishing activity in the District in quadrennial reports which are kept in the SFC offices as public records. There are references to fishing in the Barrow Wind Farm area using the names of locations listed above in the following reports: Oct, Dec 87, Dec 89, Dec90, June, Sept 91, March, June, Sept, Dec 92, March, June, Sept, Dec 93, June, Sept, Dec 94, March June, Sept Dec, 95, Mar, June, Sept, Dec 96, Mar, Dec 97, Sept 98, June, Sept 99, Mar, June, Sept, Dec 00, Dec 01, June02, June03, Mar and Oct 04. These reports give an indication of the extent to which these areas are fished.

10. The Barrow wind farm is a major concern to fishery officers in later reports or 2005-6. Some examples of the contents of the reports are as follows:

11. June 2005: Work has started on the Barrow windfarm site which straddles the trawling grounds ‘Between the roughs’ and ‘W by N of Lune’. The loss of these productive fisheries to the inshore fleet is a matter of extremely serious concern.

12. October 2005: Loss of important inshore fishing grounds (without any compensation as yet) to wind farm development…… The remaining inshore trawlers have concentrated on the grounds around Lune Deep, Shell Warf and out to the point of the bank. The loss of the areas ‘Between the Roughs’ and ‘Out to the Pebbles’ to wind farm development has been keenly felt.

13. March 2006: The loss of valuable fishing grounds to the Barrow wind farm development is causing considerable hardship to the vessels based in this part of the District.

14. July 2006: The inshore fleet is also in serious trouble. On top of high operating costs, they have lost a good quarter of their regular fishing grounds to the Barrow wind farm…. Inshore trawling effort has mostly concentrated on the small plaice fishery in Lune Deep and below Shell Warf. Less destructive and better quality fishing would have been expected at this time of year in the grounds lost to the Barrow wind farm….. Further south building of the Burbo Bank wind farm has started on grounds normally worked by Wirral based trawlers. The loss of this significant inshore plaice and sole fishery has driven the areas one purpose built inshore beam trawler to redirect her efforts to the Lune Deep area. Wind farms are concentrating fishing effort into smaller areas. This should be a matter of serious concern for the future of the fishery with the prospect of further large areas being lost to wind farm development in the near future.

15. October 2006: Inshore trawlers have predominantly worked ‘Lune Deep’, ‘below Shell Warf’ and ‘the Bank’. The Barrow wind farm has effectively denied access to the popular ‘Gazoon’ and ‘Between the Roughs’ trawling grounds off Walney. This is a serious loss to many fishermen.

16. SFO Brown has provided a list (Table 1) of approximately 30 vessels which he is aware of which have worked out of Fleetwood in recent years. About 12 of these are on your list but he has identified some which are not on your list I am having our Fishery Officer and Patrol Vessel daily logs checked to identify sightings and boardings of these vessels with position and date. I will go back over approximately 5years.

17. Not all the vessels on your list are trawlers or beam trawlers. Some are potters, particularly those working out of Barrow. We should identify where vessels come from and the type of fishing they pursue. [Can we identify the Potters?] I will have to consult our North Morecambe Bay Fishery Officer Rob Eccles. [Can James F. ID the Potters?]

18. The number of records of each vessel will be small in comparison with the actual fishing effort. This is because the Patrol vessel is at sea on only about 100 days per year and conducts approximately 400 boardings per year throughout our District of over 1000 miles of coastline. Weather, maintenance and staff rosters are the main limiting factors. Much of our work is intelligence led; wherever possible, we react to tip offs and day to day events. Therefore of the 100 days she would expect to be in the far North of the District (Barrow area) on about 10-15 days per year. Fishing activity is similarly constrained so the number of days per year when patrol vessel meets fishing vessel are few. In general the Patrol vessel would aim to board the most active fishing vessels in our District about twice per year. Approximately 5 sightings on average may also be recorded. This would be the level of records we would expect to hold relating to fully active fishing vessels.

19. [It would be appropriate to set different criteria for estimates of loss by potters compared with trawlers, because of the different fishing techniques and the possibility of continued potting within the area of windfarms. I am not yet clear if potting will continue amongst windfarms. If it can and fishermen are willing to take the risk of taking boats between turbines, then the loss of income for this sector will be less. There has been work on this issue by Government scientists, the fishing and windfarm industries but it does not yet appear to have reached definitive conclusions. In the UK DTI held a workshop on this topic in November 06 and the outcomes are awaited. My understanding is that static gear fisheries such as potting should be able to continue among windfarms if the developer permits it and exclusion zones do not prevent vessels entering the area. Trawling is very unlikely to take place because the risk of hitting a turbine in bad weather or in case of engine failure is too great.

20. Steve Brown states that any passage or fishing in the Barrow windfarm area in a moderate wind from a northerly or north westerly direction would be hazardous. Study into the effect of turbines on the wave patterns and water circulation is needed. Further radar blind spots could be created by the turbines and this could be an additional maritime hazard.

21. SFO Brown has analysed his daily logs for one year (1983) when he was a practising fisherman working his own trawling fishing vessel from Fleetwood. Although 1983 is 24 years ago, the fishing patterns of an inshore fishing vessel operating out of Fleetwood remains unchanged and is typical. In 1983 SFO Brown fished 83 days. This was less than an average year of 100 days as a result of vessel maintenance. SFO Brown is able to identify where he fished on each day and from this data, can show which days would have been affected by the windfarms in the area as follows:

22. Steve Brown pointout that in 2006, the 12m 127hp vessel Albion operated by Gary Mitchison from Fleetwood earned about £3500 by fishing a very similar pattern. After inflation this is very similar to what Steve Brown took in 1983. SFO has given me the full records of exactly what he earned month by month in 1983 and from which grounds the fish were caught. This is highly indicative of the damage that will be caused to the livelihood of the Fleetwood Fishermen’s Association vessels.

23. In practice almost certainly not in the case of the smaller vessels. This area is important to the smaller vessels which cannot go further offshore. The productivity of other areas within reach is not likely to increase so greater effort in areas already heavily fished will just result in smaller catches per unit effort and therefore higher costs per unit effort. The extra costs in time and fuel of fishing further from the home port have a major impact on the profitability of fishing boat.

24. Another factor is that the area used by trawlers and other fishing sectors is much more restricted than generally assumed. Fishermen only fish where they know it is safe from seabed hazards and dangerous water currents. They give hazards a very wide margin of error. Therefore, they tend to use the same carefully defined tows repeatedly and are understandably reluctant to risk losing gear by experimenting with unknown areas of seabed.

25. Inshore fishing is highly constrained by tidal conditions. The skill of fishermen is that they know where and at what state of the tide fish can and will be caught, what gear to use and how to deploy it so it works. This local knowledge, built up over generations is generally not transferable to new areas.

26. I understand that, on safety grounds, it is not possible or practicable for fishing to continue within or in the immediate vicinity of the windfarm. This will result in the loss of the fishing ground known as ‘Between the roughs’ to the fishermen, which will be a significant financial blow.