Monitoring the recovery of Lyme Bay

Our researchers have pioneered a whole-site approach that supports fishing communities while meeting international conservation goals
Getty lyme bay
The Lyme Bay Marine Protected Area (MPA) was designated in 2008, with a statutory instrument implemented to protect around 200 sq km of the seabed from bottom towed fishing gear.
Ever since, the University has been working with fishing communities along this stretch of the Devon and Dorset coastline to monitor its effects.
Our study remains the longest ecological dataset that is integrated with socio-economic research on MPAs and is recognised as the UK’s best example of a long-term MPA monitoring study.
It now forms a national blueprint for how to support fishing communities while meeting international conservation goals.
The research has provided foundational evidence for the UK Government’s Whole Site Approach, enabling policy development for the ‘recovery’ and ‘renewal’ of marine habitats with potential for linked social and economic benefits. The Whole Site Approach is an ambition of the UK Government’s 25 Year Environment Plan and recognised as integral to sustainable fisheries management.
Long-term interdisciplinary research has led to greater protection of the marine environment; a strengthened evidence base for conservation; new and ambitious marine policy, economic and wellbeing benefits for local communities; and enabled a cultural shift towards fisher-science partnerships, heralded as a vital flagship for marine conservation.

Our projects in the Lyme Bay Marine Protected Area

These projects have been supported by a number of funding bodies and charities

Emma Sheehan

The history of the Lyme Bay Project

Written in 2018, this article reports on a decade of research and observation into how the natural environment recovers from the effects of commercial bottom towed fishing.

See how our research is influencing regional and national policies

  • Informing the Benyon Review into Highly Protected Marine Areas : Members of the Marine Conservation Research Group were asked to give evidence directly to the review panel.
  • Featuring in the UK Government's 25-Year Environment Plan : The research model developed by the University in Lyme Bay received explicit and implicit backing from the Department for the Environment, Fishing and Rural Affairs.
  • Supporting a byelaw to protect inshore waters : Our research enabled the Sussex Inshore Fisheries & Conservation Authority to introduce a Nearshore Trawling Byelaw with the aim of protecting 117 square miles of coastal seabed.
  • : The University led the Lyme Bay Experimental Potting Project, which assessed the ecological and socio-economic impacts of the ban on bottom towed fishing gear.
  • : Dr Emma Sheehan was among the contributors to a review for the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology into UK Fisheries Management.

A shining example of climate action

The University's ongoing work in Lyme Bay has been selected to feature in Universities UK's 2022 MadeAtUni campaign, focused around Climate Action.
The campaign aims to show how UK universities are creating bold, innovative, and lasting changes to the world around us on a local, national, and global scale. It also highlights how universities are working closely with their local communities, businesses, charities and policymakers to urgently develop climate solutions that benefit us all and generations to come.

MadeAtUni Climate Action

Read about our research in Lyme Bay

A Cuttlefish (sepia officinalis) approaches one of the baited camera surveys carried out by researchers in the Lyme Bay Marine Protected Area (Credit Ƶ)

Marine Protected Area status can boost fish populations by almost 400%

The seabed of Lyme Bay covered with a forest of pink sea fans in 2017

Seabed recovers more quickly following extreme storms than from the impacts of bottom-towed fishing

A local fisherman involved in the project out hauling fishing gear within the Lyme Bay and Torbay SAC (Credit Adam Rees, Ƶ)

Managing crab and lobster catches could offer long-term benefits to fishermen and the environment

Scientists attached video cameras to pots used by crab and lobster fishermen off the south coast of England (Credit Ƶ)

Scientists release previously unseen footage showing environmental impacts of pot fishing

HD sled

Cats of the sea – ‘laser chasers’ offer insights into territorial behaviour of wild fishes

Fisherman Aubrey Banfield potting in Lyme Bay (Credit Saeed Rashid)

Limits on pot fishing can result in win-win for fishermen and marine wildlife

The Isles of Scilly

Project aims to preserve the unique seas around the Isles of Scilly

Horse mackerel

Scientists use acoustic tracking of marine predators to assess positive impacts of offshore mussel farms

Lyme Bay Marine Protected Area. Credit: Dr Luke Holmes

Boosting livelihoods and conservation practices among small-scale fishermen

See some of our research in action

Timeline – how our research and activities have evolved since 2008

2008
With 200 sq km protected from bottom towed fishing gear, the Ƶ forms a consortium with the Marine Biological Association and Plymouth Marine Laboratory to undertake an interdisciplinary study about the recovery of the Lyme Bay reefs. It also begins its first monitoring towed video survey.
2009
An annual baited video survey is commenced to complement the towed video survey, ensuring that shy and cryptic species resident in Lyme Bay are also counted. The Lyme Bay project also features for the first time on the BBC’s Countryfile.
2010
A research paper outlining the methods being used in monitoring Lyme Bay is published in PLOS One, but there are still no detectable signs of seabed recovery.
2011
Researchers start to see the first signs of noticeable recovery. Significantly more sponges and ross corals are observed, and reef-associated species are observed for the first time growing from sediment habitats, which raises alarms about feature-based management. There is an explosion of small black sea cucumbers and the first sightings of thornback rays and greater pipefish.
2012
Tooni Mahto, from the BBC's Oceans series, joins researchers on one of their monitoring expeditions in Lyme Bay, and researchers and communities begin to work with the Blue Marine Foundation.
2013
The first research paper detailing Lyme Bay reef recovery is published in PLOS One, at the same time as Dr Adam Rees begins his PhD working with the Blue Marine Foundation and local fishers to study the impacts of the potting industry. Important papers regarding site versus feature based management, and the sediment veneer reef associated species, are published in Marine Pollution Bulletin. Researchers also get their first sighting of a sea mouse.
2014
The team receives significant funding to carry out an emergency survey following a tumultuous series of winter storms, and it reveals significant reductions in species diversity and abundance. Large numbers of sea fangles are also washed up on Chesil Beach.
2015
There is a second appearance for the team on the BBC’s Countryfile, with Adam Rees working alongside presenter Tom Heap.
2016
Researchers see huge numbers of juvenile pink sea fans returning to the seabed. They also record their first sightings of a monkfish and a ling.
2017
The team is award funding for the RETURN project, which allows them to continue Lyme Bay long-term monitoring for more years. They also record sightings of common dolphins on their first day of annual surveys.
2018
Harnessing the successes in Lyme Bay, funding is awarded by the Blue Marine Foundation which aims to identify the tools through which fishermen across the country can secure a sustainable income while endeavouring to meet national and international conservation goals.
2019
A major report funded by Defra and the Blue Marine Foundation shows that restricting the amount of inshore potting for crab and lobster within marine protected areas (MPAs) can generate a “win-win” for both fishermen and the marine environment. Work also begins on the ROPE project, using acoustic tracking technology to explore the importance of offshore aquaculture and Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) to commercially important species.
2020
The COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns pose a number of challenges for researchers, but the team still successfully carries out its annual monitoring which ensured there was no gap into the continuous dataset. The work in Lyme Bay also featured as a case study in a publication in the Marine Policy journal, in which it was cited as “the only socio-economic evaluation of an MPA that links socio-economic outcomes with ecological recovery”.
2021
The team is awarded funding to lead the €4million FISH-INTEL project, which will use cutting edge technology to enhance the habitats of key fish species on both sides of the English Channel. It is also prolific year for research publications with a paper on pot fishing published in the high impact journal Scientific Reports. There is also a paper highlighting the seabed’s resilience in the face of extreme storms, which is published in August in Frontiers in Marine Science. And just two weeks later, there is an article in the Journal of Applied Ecology which shows Marine Protected Area status can boost fish populations by almost 400%.
2022
A study published by Davies et al. supports of the whole-site approach to MPA management and finds that adopting this approach results in higher levels of taxonomical and functional diversity, compared to areas that only protect certain features e.g., reefs.
2024
A paper bringing together 15 years of ecological and socio-economic research in the Lyme Bay MPA is published by the group, showcasing the potential of spatial protection to create intertwined social and ecological benefits, and highlighting lessons learned to inform policy, management and monitoring of MPAs going forward.

Research publications based on our work in Lyme Bay

2024
Renn C, Rees S, Rees S, Davies BFR, Cartwright AY, Fanshawe S, Attrill MJ, Holmes LA, Sheehan EV (2024) Lessons from Lyme Bay (UK) to inform policy, management, and monitoring of Marine Protected Areas. ICES Journal of Marine Science.

2022
Davies BFR, Holmes L, Attrill MJ & Sheehan EV (2022) The Ecosystem Benefits of Adopting the Whole-Site Approach to MPA Management. Fisheries Management and Ecology.

2021
Davies BFR, Holmes LA, Bicknell A, Attrill MJ, Sheehan EV (2021) A Decade Implementing Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries Management Improves Diversity of Taxa and Traits Within a Marine Protected Area in the UK. Diversity and Distributions. 00, 1-16.
Davies BFR, Holmes LA, Rees A, Attrill MJ, Cartwright A & Sheehan EV (2021). Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries Management Works – how switching from mobile to static fishing gear improves populations of fished and non-fished species inside a Marine Protected Area. Journal of Applied Ecology.
Sheehan EV, Holmes LA, Davies BFR, Cartwright A, Rees A, Attrill MJ (2021) Rewilding of Protected Areas Enhances Resilience of Marine Ecosystems to Extreme Climatic Events. Frontiers in Marine Science.
Rees A, Sheehan EV, Attrill, MJ (2021) Optimal fishing effort benefits fisheries and conservation. Scientific Reports.
Rees SE, Ashley M, Evans L, Mangi S, Sheehan EV, Mullier T, Rees A, Attrill MJ (2021) An evaluation of the social and economic impact of a Marine Protected Area on commercial fisheries. Fisheries Research 235: 105819.

2020
Morgan A, Sheehan EV, Rees A, Cartwright A (2020) Towards a Marine Socio-ecology of Learning in the South West of England. In: Pontius J., Mueller M., Greenwood D. (eds) Place-based Learning for the Plate. Environmental Discourses in Science Education, vol 6. Springer, Cham.
Rees SE, Sheehan EV, Stewart BD, Clark R, Appleby T, Attrill MJ, Jones PJS, Johnson D, Bradshaw N, Pittman S, Oates J, Solandt J-L (2020) Emerging themes to support ambitious UK marine biodiversity conservation. Marine Policy 117: 103864.
Davies BFR, Attrill MJ, Holmes LA, Rees A, Witt MJ, Sheehan EV (2020) Acoustic Complexity Index to assess benthic biodiversity of a partially protected area in the Southwest of the UK. Ecological Indicators 111: 106019.
Solandt J-L, Mullier T, Elliot S, Sheehan EV (2020) Managing Marine Protected Areas in Europe: Moving from ‘feature-based’ to ‘whole-site’ management of sites. In Humphreys J & Clark R (eds), Marine Protected Areas: science, policy and management. Elsevier, Ch 9.

2019
Davies P, Sheehan EV (2019) Laser chasing behaviour of wild fishes exploited as a tool to compare space use between size, sex and species. Journal of Applied Ichthyology 35: 1225-1233.

2015
Rodríguez-Rodríguez D, Rees S, Mannaerts G, Sciberras M, Piried C, Black G, Aulert C, Sheehan EV, Carrierb S, Attrill MJ (2015) Status of the marine protected area network across the English channel (La Manche): Cross-country similarities and differences in MPA designation, management and monitoring. Marine Policy 51: 536–546.

2014
Stevens TF, Sheehan, Gall SC, Fowell SC, Attrill MJ (2014) Monitoring benthic biodiversity restoration in Lyme Bay marine protected area: Design, sampling and analysis. Marine Policy 45: 310-317.

2013
Sheehan EV, TF Stevens, SC Gall, SL Cousens, MJ Attrill (2013) Recovery of a Temperate Reef Assemblage in a Marine Protected Area following the Exclusion of Towed Demersal Fishing. PloS ONE 8: e83883.
Sheehan EV, SL Cousens, SJ Nancollas, C Stauss, J Royle, MJ Attrill (2013) Drawing lines at the sand: Evidence for functional vs. visual reef boundaries in temperate Marine Protected Areas. Marine pollution bulletin 76: 194-202.
Rees SE, Sheehan EV, Jackson EL, Gall SC, Cousens SL, Solandt JL, Boyer M, Attrill MJ (2013) A legal and ecological perspective of ‘site integrity’ to inform policy development and management of Special Areas of Conservation in Europe. Marine pollution bulletin 72:14-21.

University staff who have been involved in the Lyme Bay project

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