State of the South West's Seas report published for 2022

9 August 2023

The State of the South West Seas in 2022 Report is now available, having been prepared by a group of specialists working within the umbrella of the South-West Marine Ecosystems (SWME) programme.
 
The SWME programme brings the marine and coastal community together annually to consider the changes that are taking place in our local seas. This report is the ninth report in this series and includes detailed chapters on oceanography, storms, plankton, seashore, seabed, fish and turtles, coastal birds, seals, whales, dolphins and porpoises. Management chapters include fisheries, marine planning, marine protected areas, water pollution and plastics pollution.
 
The report reflects the work of both hundreds of volunteer citizen scientists and professionals working in the south-west. PML’s Prof. Tim Smyth, Dr Angus Atkinson and PhD fellow, Dr Zara Botterell, all contributed to report in the areas of oceanography, plankton and plastic pollution, respectively.
 
The summary below highlights findings which are covered in the chapters of the report, in which includes contacts that can be approached for further information.
 

Topic summaries

Oceanography: Summer of 2022 was notable for the three heatwaves during July and August in the UK.  These events heated the sea-surface layer up to temperatures around 20 C in the western English Channel, with notable warmth persisting until mid-October (>15 C).
 
Storms: The patterns of storms in 2022 was normal and in the winter of 2022 & 2023 was unremarkable; unusually there were very few storms in the January – April period of 2023. The impact on natural systems, species and habitats was on the unremarkable side of normal.
 
Plankton: The year was unremarkable for plankton, the main feature of note being unusually high numbers of salps (gelatinous filter feeders un-related to jellyfish) during June and July. While the plankton was "normal" compared to other recent years, it aligns with a large-scale, long-term and radical change driven by climate, whose consequences we are exploring.
 
Shore and seabed marine life: Observations through the year of seashore and seabed species and habitats have recorded the ‘usual’ range of events such as wash-outs of species after storms, strandings of oceanic species and a small number of NE Atlantic marine species new to Britain being found. There were range extensions or increases in local abundance of some warmer water species. There is a great deal of work going into seagrass survey and recovery projects in the south-west.
 
Fish: Reduced sightings of Basking sharks continued the pattern of recent years. The fish world is full of surprises; and none so amazing as a Greenland shark found dead on a beach in Newlyn; at almost 4m and 285 kg the immature female was estimated to be about one hundred years of age.  The shark was the third known to have stranded in Britain, and 5.4° of latitude or around five hundred miles south of previous ones. Groupers are thought of as large fish of the tropics, but a small relative, the comber, which used to be found every two to three years, is increasing in British waters with at least twenty recorded in 2022. Mackerel were notably late not arriving in south-west waters until September.
 
Turtles: The number of turtles reported in the south west in 2022 followed the national pattern in being one of the lowest on record. A cold-stunned juvenile loggerhead, in November, was the first of several, most of which were found in early 2023.
 
Marine and coastal birds: Breeding seabird colonies in the South-West seemed to largely escape the worst effects of the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza outbreak. Breeding terns had a productive year across the region, whereas kittiwakes had another poor year.
 
Seals: 70% of grey seals recorded were adults with pups representing less than 1% of all seals recorded with one swimming at least 800km in less than a month. Worryingly, issues wise there were 124 unique entangled grey seals, twenty-four new hooked seals (an emerging issue) and disturbance remains high with 1393 seals seriously disturbed in 223 incidents. On the plus side, and there was a second successfully weaned common seal.
 
Whales, Dolphins & Porpoises: Sightings of minke, fin and humpback whales were above average in 2022 compared with recent years, and the data showed continued support for species-specific seasonal peaks in south west England. Twenty humpback whales have been added to the new regional photo-identification catalogue, one of which has visited every year since 2019 and another that connects a full migration route. The seas around the South-West appear to be an important habitat for bottlenose dolphins, common dolphins and harbour porpoises and these species appear to be increasing significantly.
 
Marine Planning: The Marine Management Organisation South West Marine Plan, which was formally adopted in 2021, is currently in the implementation and monitoring stages of the marine planning cycle. In 2022, a total of 24 implementation sessions took place nationally, with the participation of 23 attendees from the South West plan area. At present, ongoing monitoring surveys are being conducted to assess the effectiveness of the South West Marine Plan's use in 2022. The findings from these surveys will be included in the first South West Marine Plan Three Year Report, which will be published in 2024. Finally, in 2022, decisions on all seventy marine licence applications submitted within the plan area were made in accordance with the policies of the South West Marine Plan.
 
Offshore wind: There are now major assessments underway in the south-west to prepare for the deployment of extensive floating offshore wind in the region. There is acknowledgement that ambitious targets for offshore wind will have an impact on the marine environment and fisheries are now part of a wider conversation around Marine Spatial Prioritisation and the optimal use of the UK’s seas.
 
Fisheries: The UK is moving to towards an Ecosystem-Based Approach to Fisheries Management, a central tenet of which is to fully acknowledge and integrate humans within environmental management, acknowledging both our impact on and reliance upon ecosystems.  One of the primary ecosystem services provided by the marine environment is the provision of food and we are increasingly aware of the great social, economic and cultural importance of fisheries historically and today, particularly in the southwest UK. In the same way that measuring the status of a top predator can be indicative of the health of an ecosystem, the long-term sustainability (or otherwise) of fisheries can be a useful indicator as to the state of the ecosystem. However, marine foodwebs are complex and the abundance of fish populations and the numbers caught or landed by fishermen can be affected by several interacting factors. Any inference regarding the state of an ecosystem or the success of management based upon trends in fisheries catch or landings must therefore be cognisant of the complexity of both the environmental and human dimensions of fisheries.
 
Marine Protected Areas: Across the Devon, Cornwall and IoS marine area (coastline to 12nm), 34% of the marine area is covered by an MPA designation. Conservation Advice has been completed for 98% of MPAs (up from 97% past year) and condition assessments completed for 15% (up from 7% the previous year). Significant progress was made in 2022 to implement fisheries management measures for offshore MPAs. Two sites in the SWME area Canyons MCZ, and South Dorset MCZ have byelaws in place to prohibit bottom towed gear. In 2021 there was an expectation that a SWME site would be proposed as a Highly Protected Marine Areas (HPMAs), however no SWME proposed HPMAs were put forward in 2022 for public consultation. Research within MPAs has focused on seagrass protection, restoration and estimating contributions to blue carbon. Over the duration of 2022 there were several Blue Carbon focussed events to share expertise and learning across the SWME.
 
Water Quality: It remains crucial to adopt a ‘wholescape’ approach when considering water quality; that is to include river catchments and land-based sources of pollution. The ecological and chemical status of water quality in the South West remained poor in 2022, similar to the previous year. There have, however, been slight improvements in Bathing Water Classifications. A notable increase in citizen science, public engagement, and, consequently, sewage storm overflow monitoring devices have increased from 89% to 91% coverage from 2021 to 2022 have continued to raise the profile of the poor water quality.
 
Plastic pollution: In 2022, over 138.7 tonnes of plastic litter was removed from the marine environment in the Southwest. Whilst this is a decrease from the previous year, this still highlights the large amount washing up on our shores and the difficulty in dealing with this ever present and mobile problem. Many thanks to the 60,000+ volunteers for their time and efforts in removing this harmful pollutant. 
 
Seabed litter: A small number of organisations work to remove lost or discarded material from the seabed. In one exercise within Plymouth Sound in 2022, the ‘haul’ of litter included 55 bikes. The greatest amount of material reported was fishing-related and included nets and pots. Adjacent to the shore and especially in the vicinity of harbours, piers and wharves, the discarded/dumped items include traffic cones, bicycles, tyres (lost fenders or discarded) and supermarket trolleys.
 
Webinars on these topics for 2022 can be viewed on SWME YouTube channel.
 

Related information

The State of South-West Seas 2022 report
South West Marine Ecosystems programme