Trade-offs of management measures for the sole fishery in Lyme Bay

This report outlines the findings of two workshops between MMO policy practitioners and ROCC researchers held in July 2023. The MMO team participated in an experimental trade-off analysis using the Marine Planning and Trade-off Analysis (MaPTA) tool to investigate two potential management measures for the sole fishery in Lyme Bay:

  1. The reduction in the sole catch limit for non-sector dredge vessels
  2. Ban or partial ban of commercial fishing within 200-yards of the shoreline

The aim of the workshops was to review the potential costs and benefits of the interventions and understand why they are deemed acceptable or not.

In September 2023, a decision document for several management measures in Lyme Bay (some not discussed during our analysis) was published by the MMO.