The key to identifying and protecting our best places for wildlife starts with knowing what’s there. That can be quite tricky on land – at sea the challenge is even greater.
Between now and the end of September Natural England are encouraging anyone who knows their cockles from their mussels to submit their records on a new website. The information gathered will be added to the knowledge that will inform the designation of Marine Conservation Zones (MCZ).
MCZs have cropped up in these posts before – we weren’t very impressed that the guidance for drawing up MCZs didn’t include seabirds. It still doesn’t though it’s been made clear that the current guidance doesn’t preclude the use of seabird data – it will just be a harder job to ensure it is properly taken in to account.
Anyway, if you are planning to take the plunge over the summer – you may be able to help shape the first MCZs
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