The move, announced by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), went before MPs as a statutory instrument on 19 June and was expected to come into force without complication three weeks later. It should, therefore, come into force around 10 July.
DEFRA acted in response to over-riding evidence that the seabed was being turned into a wasteland by, in particular, beam-trawling, in which a trawl is dragged along the bottom. The scalloping ban has also been put in place to allow a strong regeneration of the creatures.
The area affected runs from the shoreline between Beer and West Bay, with Lyme Regis at its centre. It extends about four nautical miles out, to a chart datum depth of around 45m. It represents about 10 per cent of Lyme Bay.
The Wildlife Trusts, which have campaigned for such protection since the early 1990s, welcomed DEFRA's decision. Fishing stocks aside, the protection will allow numerous species to flourish again.
'Lyme Bay is home to 300 recorded species of plants and animals, including dense populations of the nationally protected pink sea fan and the extremely rare sunset coral,' stated Devon Wildlife Trust, which last year published a detailed report, Lyme Bay Reefs - A 16-year Search for Sustainability.
'As well as a haven for sponges, starfish and coral, the reefs also support a range of seafood animals, including crab, lobster and scallops.'
Last year, in response to a public consultation run by DEFRA, 73 per cent of respondents supported the concept of a 60sq-mile exclusion zone. A campaign run by the Wildlife Trusts, Devon Wildlife Trust and Dorset Wildlife Trust collected 10,500 signatures through postcard and online canvassing calling for protection.
DEFRA will also have been aware that, if it failed to act, action could have been taken by the EU. 'The area is ripe for an application for designation as a Special Area of Conservation under the EU Habitats Directive,' Joan Edwards, Head of Marine Policy at The Wildlife Trusts, told Divernet.
'We informed DEFRA that we were on the verge of proposing an SAC application, for which we believe we would have had the support of Natural England. If DEFRA had not acted, the application would have been under way before the end of June.'
DEFRA has been tendering for an organisation to carry out periodic surveys of the area to assess the effects of the zone on wildlife levels.
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