Marine reserves can rescue our seas
There is an invisible crisis facing UK seas
Commercial fish stocks and marine biodiversity are in serious decline due to over-exploitation and poor management. Urgent action is required to arrest and reverse this decline. Highly protected marine reserves, where all extractive activity is prohibited, is the management tool which can rescue our seas!
The UK Marine Reserves Campaign aims to ensure that the forthcoming UK Marine Bill places a duty on the Secretary of State to establish an ecologically coherent network of Highly Protected Marine Reserves covering at least 30% of UK seas out to 200 nautical miles.
The Marine Bill
The Government have announced their intention to publish a draft Marine Bill, around the end of March, with a view to putting it before parliament in the autumn. This bill provides a golden opportunity to do something before it is too late and the draft Bill is likely to include some measures to protect the marine environment. However, all the indications are that the proposed measures are likely to be far more limited than most experts believe are necessary.
What have we been doing locally?
As part of our campaign to get at least 30% of the UK’s territorial waters designated as a network of fully protected marine reserves we have been working closely with Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, other local Friends of the Earth groups and experts on the marine environment. We have run stalls at The Deep (aquarium) in Hull and also in Parliament Street in York. Our most recent stall featured a variety of colourful fish and new member, Caroline Duffy, recent winner of the ‘Miss Earth’ award was one of the keen volunteers encouraging the public to sign a card in support of the campaign.
Save our Seas
On Friday 16th January members of York and Ryedale Friends of the Earth, Yorkshire Wildlife Trust and Miss Earth (Caroline Duffy) met with York MP Hugh Bayley to call on his to support the establishment of a network of highly protected marine reserves in UK waters. The meeting was on the front page and on page 3 of the local paper – The Press. Hugh Bayley has signed EDM 337 and has written to Huw Irrada-Davis, the minister responsible for the Marine and Coastal Access Bill to invite him to a public meeting. The meeting with campaigners is also featured on the MPs website see
http://www.hughbayley.labour.
Hugh Bayley was particularly interested in the development of renewable energy in the seas around the UK and any possible problems these might cause. We assured him that any problems could be overcome (see the renewable energy part of our website) and that although Friends of the Earth did not support the construction of the Severn Barrage, we did support some of the proposed alternative ways of generating energy from tidal power.
A broad range of proposals for the improvement of the bill have also been made by The Marine Conservation Society
We are planning to lobby more MPs in the region and have arranged to meet John Grogan in November. We are also planning more stalls including a return to The Deep. We plan to produce some colourful props for use in a photo-opportunity later this year and hope to arrange a talk or talks on the subject.
Don't miss the boat!
We need to try and ensure that this opportunity is not missed, MARINET, the Friends of the Earth Marine Network, has launched the UK Marine Reserves Campaign, to work with other organisations to get a requirement to set up an extensive network of highly protected marine reserves included in the Bill.
This is only likely to happen if we can mobilise a lot of pressure on MPs and the Government...that's where you come in!
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Do you and your MP know?
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Our seas are dangerously overfished and the North Sea spawning populations of Cod, Herring, Halibut and Whitling are at all time historical lows, and if we continue to fish for them as we do they will very likely cease to be available as food!
Find out more about the campaign
Further reading. We recommend the recent book by Professor Callum Roberts, a lecturer at the university of York –“The Unnatural History of the Sea”