MARINET member contributes to Big Issue article on UK Marine Bill
The Big Issue in the North published in its edition at the end of July an article about the troubled state of UK seas and the need for the UK Marine Bill to seriously address these matters. This article can be found on the Marinet website.
The article cites evidence from Natural England that at least 70% of UK fish stocks have declined in reproductive capacity and that whereas in 1998 UK vessels landed £137 million of cod and haddock, this fell to just £70 million in 2002.
The Living Seas report by the Wildlife Trusts is also cited in the Big Issue article. This report states that basking sharks have declined by 95% and the once ubiquitous common skate is on the verge of extinction. The report also observes that dolphins, whales and seals have all suffered in recent years and that fish stocks have collapsed. “The marine environment — our life support system — is on its knees” the Wildlife Trusts report states.
Abigail Herron, a member of MARINET and Manchester FOE, is a diver and has first-hand experience of how marine wildlife has declined near Anglesey. “The waters around Anglesey” she says “are very rich in biodiversity and you used to find a lot of dogfish there, but you just don’t see them anymore.”
MARINET believes that the only way to reverse this decline in marine biodiversity, which is not just due to over-fishing but also pollution, development and, increasingly, climate change is to establish a widespread and extensive network of marine reserves throughout UK seas out 200 nautical miles where all damaging human activities are forbidden. This way the marine ecosystem as a whole can be protected, and be allowed to heal and recover. MARINET is proposing an amendment to the Report Stage of the Marine Bill in the House of Commons which will allow for precisely this. The amendment will mean that marine reserves can be created not just to protect habitats, species and geomorphological features (as the current draft of the Marine Bill proposes), but that marine reserves can also be created in areas to protect “the marine ecosystem as a whole”. This is the key phrase and concept that will ensure that the UK Marine Bill can deliver on its political promises. At present, this phrase and concept is absent from the legislation.