11.5.11.3 Tope 154. Tope range from 70° N to 55° S and are regularly recorded around the British Isles (Morato et al. 2003, Ellis et al. 2005). Larger individuals may be solitary, however they mostly aggregate to form schools of similar sized individuals, often segregated by sex (Kay and Dipper, 2009).
155. Tope were not recorded in the area of the East Anglia THREE site during site specific fish surveys. The East Anglia THREE site falls within defined low intensity nursery grounds for this species.
156. Tope are of conservation interest, being listed as a UK BAP priority species. The species is assessed as vulnerable in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (Table 11.9).
157. The diet of tope consists of a variety of fish, including pilchards, herring, anchovies, smelt, hake, cod sole, mackerel and gobies. They also prey on a number of crustacean and cephalopod species such as squid, octopus, crabs and whelk (Morato et al. 2003, Shark Trust, 2010).
11.5.11.4 Spurdog 158. Spurdogs are wide ranging over the North Sea with the highest densities found well to the north of East Anglia THREE (Figure 11.47) between depths of 15 and 528m (Ellis et al. 2004).
159. Tagging studies suggest a single North East Atlantic stock and have shown that mature males migrate to the north and east of the British Isles in spring and return to the south-west in autumn. Immature females seem to be evenly distributed in all sea areas at all times of the year, and tend to move year by year in a clockwise direction around the British Isles. Data from fisheries suggests that adult females gather in the eastern Celtic Sea in winter and spring to release their young and leave this area rapidly in late spring (Pawson, 1995).
160. After thornback ray, spurdog is the main elasmobranch species landed from the offshore cable corridor study area. Spurdog were not recorded during site specific fish surveys undertaken in the area of East Anglia THREE.
161. The exploitation of this species has been reduced substantially in recent years as a result of decreasing quota allocations (Ellis et al. 2009). In 2010, the TAC for spurdog was set to zero, landings were however still permitted under a by-catch TAC, provided certain conditions were met (ICES, 2010). In 2013 ICES advice states that “there should be no target fishery and that bycatch in a mixed fisheries should be reduced to the lowest possible level. A rebuilding plan should be developed for this
Preliminary Environmental Information May 2014
East Anglia THREE Offshore Windfarm
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