I have searched the site but found no mention of the activities of the Marine Minerals Limited or their proposals to dredge huge quantities of sand, just offshore from the coast of St Ives in Cornwall and the surrounding area.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-22357712
Marine Minerals hopes to dredge sand rich in Tin from offshore Cornwall, returning up to 95% of the processed material to the sea.
They have submitted an initial scoping report as part of the required Environmental Assessment, but this was judged to be inadequate by the legislating authority the Marine Management Organisation.
Despite this and without any permission to do so, MML have gone ahead with unauthorised trial dredging in the area.
This activity appears to represent a direct and immediate threat to wildlife in the area for a variety of reasons.
Dredging will directly affect organisms living in the sand, killing them in the process of extraction and sorting.
Any pollutants within the removed material will leach out into surrounding water damaging water quality and potentially organisms in it.
The areas targeted include important grounds for sand eels, a critical part of the ecosystem supporting fish and the birds that rely on them.
The dredging will alter the hydrodynamic regime, potentially leading to beach erosion and loss of habitats behind them as material is lost into the sea.
Given these many and varied potential impacts and their implications for the bird-life in the area, what action is the RSPB taking to highlight this issue nationally?
Hello Jim, thank you for raising this issue. The RSPB is aware of the proposed dredging you mention. Having spoken to one of our Conservation officers I can confirm that we responded in detail to the scoping request to the Marine Management Organisation (MMO) highlighting areas of potential concern and recommending survey work. The scoping request is the stage prior any planning application where a Council asks for views and recommendations and then issues a Scoping Opinion to the applicant that sets out the information that they need to provide with a detailed application for the works. The RSPB is aware of the issues concerned here, but ultimately it would be for the MMO to deal with any illegal, non-consented works. Please find below our response as mentioned above:
Thank you for your response.
My concern is that by providing consultative input to the environmental impact assessment process the RSPB is legitimising the activities of this company and the proposal to extract sand as described.
I doubt whether any such activity is compatible with the long-term viability of the environment in question, but I doubt even more that this particular company intends to pay anything more than lip service to the recommendations and requirements that will be handed down to them.
I would much prefer to see the RPSB assuming an activist role on this issue; opposing the proposals outright and encouraging members to add their voices to the objection on the grounds that the impact to wildlife will far exceed any economic gains.