The UK is a leading nation in the development of large offshore wind energy installations (OWFs). Since 2000, the UK has installed 2610 turbines covering over 2000 km² of UK seas. As these sites overlap with historic fishing grounds as well as Marine Protected Areas it is important to understand the relationship between the presence of these OWFs and fishing activity to assess the extent to which OWFs could act as de facto MPAs with respect to fisheries management, providing other environmental impacts are mitigated. We assessed the extent to which the fishing activity of vessels using bottom-contacting mobile gears (trawls, dredges and demersal seines) were impacted by the construction of 12 offshore windfarms in the UK EEZ. Using publicly available Global Fishing Watch fishing effort data, we found fishing rate from vessels using bottom-towed gear was reduced by 77 % following OWF construction in 11 of the 12 sites studied. A decline in bottom-towed fishing activity was recorded in OWFs where turbines were constructed in a densely aggregated patch, and an increase in fishing activity where turbines were positioned as several distinct aggregated patches within the site. We conclude that bottom-towed fishing activity is affected by turbine layout, with OWFs likely offering some protection to the benthic environment from bottom-towed gear. We suggest this reduction in bottom-towed fishing provides space for co-location opportunities and note that consultations on domestic MPA designations should involve offshore wind stakeholders in terms of OWF ‘co-location’ with and ‘avoidance’ of MPAs.

英国是开发大型海上风能装置 (OWF) 的领先国家。自 2000 年以来，英国已经安装了 2610 台涡轮机，覆盖了 2000 多平方公里^的英国海域。由于这些地点与历史渔场以及海洋保护区重叠，因此了解这些 OWF 的存在与捕鱼活动之间的关系以评估 OWF 在多大程度上可以作为事实上的与渔业管理有关的海洋保护区，只要减轻其他环境影响。我们评估了在英国专属经济区建设 12 个海上风电场对使用底部接触式移动设备（拖网、挖泥船和海底围网）的船舶捕鱼活动的影响程度。使用公开的全球捕鱼观察捕鱼努力数据，我们发现在所研究的 12 个地点中的 11 个建造 OWF 后，使用底拖渔具的船只的捕鱼率降低了 77%。在 OWFs 中记录了底拖捕鱼活动的下降，其中涡轮机建造在密集的聚集斑块中，而在涡轮机被放置在该地点内的几个不同聚集斑块中的捕鱼活动增加。我们得出结论，底拖捕鱼活动受涡轮布局的影响，OWF 可能会为底拖设备的海底环境提供一些保护。我们建议减少底拖捕捞为共址机会提供了空间，并注意到关于国内 MPA 指定的磋商应让海上风电利益相关者参与，就 OWF 与 MPA 的“共址”和“避免”而言。