I hate to end the week on a sour note, but yesterday's announcement about Marine Conservation Zones was hugely disappointing.
For over a decade, many NGOs and hundreds of thousands of people supported the campaign to get comprehensive legislation for the marine environment. This ultimately received cross-party support and led to the passing of the Marine and Coastal Access Act (2009).
Our expectation was that this would lead to the establishment of an ecologically coherent network of marine protected areas. Yet, of 127 sites proposed for protection, only ‘up to’ 31 are recommended for designation in 2013, and there appears to be no clear commitment to any further rounds of designation.
Less than half of the 57 sites identified by the Government’s own advisors as being at high risk are to be progressed, the others in many cases being excluded on the basis that the economic implications of designation are perceived to outweigh the conservation benefits. Many of these sites may therefore be lost. This news needs to be looked at alongside our inability to establish a network of marine protected areas of European importance (under the Birds and Habitats Directives).
We, and no doubt those that supported the marine campaign, feel let down by yesterday's announcement.
I understand Mr Benyon's desire to get this right, but seabirds and other marine wildlife are in trouble. As I have written previously here, here and here, they need something more than is currently being offered. And arugably, developers at sea need these sites identified fast to help provide provide certainty about the most appropriate sites for development.
The coalition Government’s commitment to achieve a ecologically coherent network of marine protected areas now looks undeliverable. We will examine the consultation in detail, including the lamentable attention given to the protection of seabirds and other ‘mobile species’.
What do you think of government's announcement about marine conservation zones?
It would be great to hear your views.
Its not so much the economy as politics - as things stand its a double whammy - fish, fishermen and wildlife are all going down together so there's no profit there - but to reverse iot means putting fishermen out of a job and like farmers they have an iconic status quite out of proportion to the economic importance of what they do - which is getting less as the fish get scarcer.
We still mine the seas - like logging a tropical rainforest, we take what we can get and soon it'll be gone. Forestry, in contrast, works on a basis of sustained yield - aiming to grow and cut the same amount of timber each year. I just wonder what sustained yield would look like around our coasts if ever we could get back to it ? We would be able to harvest massively more fish - and our wildlife could thrive. Marine reserves are a first step in the right direction.
However, foresters also know that if you overcut you spiral down very quickly - each year the trees are smaller and younger and you have to cut more. That's where we are on fisheries except that if you look at the age of Cod in the North Sea we're actually catching them almost before they are hatched from the egg !