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By Sharon Thompson, Senior Marine Policy Officer

Thursday night saw the last in the present series of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s FishFight ‘Save our Seas’ campaign. This programme highlighted a number of important marine conservation and sustainability issues including:

  • Illegal fishing (in marine reserves in Thailand) – highlighting the need for proper enforcement both inside and outside Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) everywhere
  • Catching miniscule fish and anything else off the seabed (often not for human consumption) – this practice contributes to fish stock declines and the failure of stocks to recover from over-fishing as these fish never get to breeding size, plus it damages the marine environment and removes all other marine life at the same time
  • Using these undersize and illegally caught fish and sealife to create feed for farmed prawns – raising concerns over the sustainability of the seafood, particularly prawns, sold in the UK, Europe and across the globe
  • The urgent need to designate MPAs to protect important, sensitive and threatened marine species and habitats, both in UK waters and elsewhere

The last point throws a spotlight on the Government’s unambitious proposals for new Marine Conservation Zones (MCZs) in English waters, currently out for consultation until the end of March. The Government are only proposing to designate up to 31 out of the 127 sites that were recommended by stakeholder groups (including fishermen, industry and environmentalists) at the end of 2011, and there is no timetable for when the rest of the sites will be brought forward. And as it stands, none of the proposed sites will include mobile species such as seabirds, dolphins, whales or sharks as protected species.

The RSPB is concerned that this pattern is repeating itself across the UK, as currently none of the processes to identify MCZs in England and Wales and MPAs in Scotland will deliver protection for the important areas used by seabirds at sea for key activities such as feeding and moulting. While the Northern Ireland Marine Bill has stalled.

You can help! You can step up for nature by adding your voice to the call for an ecologically coherent network MPAs around the UK by signing our e-actions.

To help protect the seas around England, click here today.

To help protect the seas around Northern Ireland, click here today.

We expect the next steps for Wales and Scotland to happen in the summer.  Why not sign up to this blog to get a reminder straight in to your inbox?

Northern fulmar: Mike Read (rspb-images.com)