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Marine Bill launched
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The long-awaited Marine Bill has been published at draft stage by Environment Secretary Hilary Benn.
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The draft Bill, open for consultation until 26 June, includes plans for a series of statutory marine conservation zones nationwide.
The zones will be established by 2012 and will cover possibly a fifth or even a quarter of British territorial waters. Any measures adopted in Scotland will, however, need to be passed separately by the Scottish Parliament.
Conservation zones will be considered where it can be shown that important habitats have been damaged by existing levels of fishing, dredging, aggregrates extraction or other activities. Other elements of the draft Bill are:
* A nationwide marine planning system, able to provide co-ordinated, clear definitions of how marine resources can best be used;
* Improved fisheries management;
* Simpler licensing of marine developments, such as wind farms;
* Creation of the Marine Management Organisation, a centre of excellence to regulate development and activity at sea and enforce environmental protection laws;
* Opening of routes to allow walking access around the entire English coastline.
'Our seas are already showing the effects of climate change and with increasing use of the sea by many competing interests we must make sure that the marine environment can cope with changing conditions,' stated Hilary Benn. 'We have a duty to look after our seas for future generations.
'Our proposals will raise protection and management of our seas to a new level, halting the decline in biodiversity to create clean, healthy, safe, productive and biologically diverse oceans and seas.
'For the first time in our history all of us will be able to walk the length of the coast and get close to the sea right around England.'
Jonathan Shaw, Marine and Fisheries Minister, added: 'The draft Marine Bill is a major step forward in marine protection and planning. It will benefit all who make a living from the sea by helping to get the most we can from it in a sustainable way while protecting precious resources.'
Environmental groups have, however, expressed concern that measures to establish statutory protection zones may not involve a policy of absolute no-take, or at the least highly restricted take. This, they say, would be required in many areas to guarantee an effective recovery in levels of marine life. Any policy which allows take through a system of licences might dilute the conservation effect.
On the day of the draft Bill's launch about 100 people, including members of the Marine Conservation Society, the British Sub-Aqua Club, and the aquaria industry, marched across Westminster Bridge to the House of Commons to deliver a 100,000-strong petition calling for the Government to commit to a network of 'highly protected' marine reserves.
With about half the group walking in diving suits, masks and snorkels, and many with t-shirts and placards marked 'Marine Reserves Now!', the group was able to present the petition in the Commons' Old Palace Yard directly to Joan Ruddock, for Defra, and Diana Linskey, contracted by Defra as an architect of the draft Bill.
'The piece-meal management of existing so-called 'protected areas' such as Special Areas of Conservation does not adequately protect our valuable marine wildlife. Some of these sites allow practices such as scallop dredging, beam trawling, gillnetting and dredging to damage our marine environment,' Dr Jean-Luc Solandt, Biodiversity Policy Officer of the Marine Conservation Society, said.
'We fear the proposals set out in the draft Bill will only repeat the errors of the past, with Government allowing short-term commercial interests to compromise much-needed long-term protection and sustainability. That's why we are marching on Westminster today with our 100,000-signature petition.
'The UK Government must acknowledge that the British public supports the urgent need to implement a comprehensive network of Highly Protected Marine Reserves and let our over-exploited marine ecosystems recover.'
To date, just one highly protected statutory marine reserve has been established in the UK, at Lundy Island off North Devon. Yet, said the MCS, in order to 'ensure the recovery of our seas and marine wildlife from decades of over-exploitation', marine scientists have recommend that at least 30 per cent of British waters should be fully protected.
'Over 124 scientific studies from around the world have shown that marine reserves result in an average weight increase of 446 per cent of wildlife from previously exploited areas, whilst the density of animals and plants increased by an average of 166 per cent,' added the MCS.
See the draft Marine Bill at www.defra.gov.uk/marine/index.htm
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