UK Government scales back plans for highly protected marine area’s in England!

Good to know that the boats will still be going out of Lindisfarne harbour, they only do pot fishing so the amount of damage they do must be minimal

Pete

Birding is for everyone no matter how good or bad we are at it,enjoy it while you can

Disappointing that the site off the Lincolnshire Coast also misses out. But the designations may only be 'paper exercises' because it is hard to see how they can be enforced. Trawlers (whether British or foreign) will still come and go, and I suspect windfarm companies will still be granted consent to lay cables.

https://thewryneck.blogspot.com

In reply to Seaman:

Perhaps they use too many pots and take too many crabs and lobsters.

Is there any survey data that indicates any crustacean population declines or increases (or stability)?

Then there's the possibility the area that they fish (with pots) is a nursery/breeding area for the crustaceans that they fish for with pots.

Are the catches still in line with historical catch rates? Has there been a decline? In numbers or the maturity of the captured shellfish?

Missed opportunity. Dropping areas where there is fishing/human activity means places that most need protecting are the ones that aren't. Easy to protect areas where no one has any intention of going. It achieves very little other than pretend action has been taken and stats can be used to show increasing areas that are under protection.

I can see this only being an experiment at the moment on a trail basis - it is been badly thought out by the government.

To me personally rather than take 5 Areas in the UK, why does the UK Government not start with one so they could see any pitfalls arise before they began any serious processes.

Also taking in areas where there are coastline Reserves, rivers, and SSSI's need to be considered too. Too many issues not looked into Windfarms, pipelines and so forth.

I have been visiting ,Menorca since 2007, and similar issues occured in Menorca which is only a small island, The government there decided to create an area of coast all around the island so so many miles out from the shoreline that has been designated area for protection for marine wildlife. No one is allowed to fish close to shore, so fish stocks, and other wildlife would get a chance to recover.

Maybe this could be a new ploy to help.the UK resolve this issue or too many politics might get in the way.

Regards

Kathy and Dave