Conservation hotspots for fish habitats: A case study from English and Welsh waters

Competition for maritime space generates conflict between human activities and ecosystem conservation; Marine (Spatial) Plans provide conflict resolutions and clarify trade-offs. Spatial plans require appropriate scales, reliable maps of sites important to marine organisms. We present maps of hotspots of Essential Fish Habitats (EFH) at a high spatial resolution for English and Welsh waters. These outputs can be integrated into an improved spatial plan for these waters. We modelled the potential distribution for different life stages of commercially and ecologically important species, as a high-resolution indicator of the distribution of essential fish habitats. Model outputs were combined with observed, low-resolution fish distributions to derive ‘hotspot’ spawning and nursery areas. The Celtic Sea and coastal areas of the North Sea are highlighted as important spawning and nursery grounds. High pressure from human activities is expected to impact EFHs in the English Channel and the central-east Celtic Sea. Our approach maintains the high resolution of the model-derived maps while filling in information gaps. As fish share essential habitat preferences, protected hotspot areas are expected to sustain a multitude of species. Overlaying human activities, such as fishing, on the hotspot maps allows managers to identify areas of conservation interest and apply appropriate measures. The method is directly applicable to other areas and can be extended to use multiple sources of data for model development. [Display omitted] •Species Distribution Models can provide high-resolution maps of Essential Fish Habitats.•GIS algorithms combine EFH maps of different resolutions from different studies to decrease uncertainty.•Combining EFH maps for groups of species with similar characteristics highlight hotspots of conservation interest.•We describe an approach to produce high resolution, reliable EFH maps for Marine Spatial Planning.