The UK Marine Reserves Campaign aims to ensure that the UK Marine and Coastal Access Bill places a duty on the Secretary of State to establish by 2015 an ecologically coherent network of Highly Protected Marine Reserves covering at least 30% of UK seas out to 200 nautical miles.
The Government published the Marine and Coastal Access Bill on 3 December 2008. This bill provides a golden opportunity to do something to regenerate the collapsing marine ecosystem, and restore the economic viability of our distressed fishing industry. However, in the form that is proposed, the expected recovery will be delayed at least and possibly never materialise at all.
MARINET, the
Friends of the Earth Marine Network, has launched our
UK Marine Reserves Campaign, to work with other organisations to get the duty outlined above included in the Bill. This will only happen if we can mobilise a lot of pressure on MPs and the Government.
Find out more about the campaign.
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17th August, 2009
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.
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Tags: Big Issue, MARINET
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13th August, 2009
Review of progress
The Marine and Coastal Access Bill has completed its Committee Stage in the House of Commons. The final steps, the Report Stage and Third Reading will be in October. It will then become law. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: MARINET
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28th July, 2009
The Marine and Coastal Access Bill has completed its Committee Stage in the House of Commons. The Report Stage and Third Reading will be in October. It will then become law.
In our view, Government has frustrated the very reasonable and responsible ambitions of those moving the amendments
Government has refused including ‘on the face of the Bill’
- highly protected marine reserves
- scientific criteria as the primary means for identifying and designating marine conservation zones (MCZs)
- establishing conservation zones covering a sufficiently extensive area of the sea to enable economic and social uses of the seas to be environmentally sustainable
However, we can offer two cheers as they have accepted that the network of MCZs should
- be set up in an initial form by 2012, and
- be ecologically coherent
We are looking for support for an amendment at the Report stage. This is intended to remedy some of the problems caused by the omissions.
Tags: MARINET
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21st July, 2009
Marine Reserves campaigner Haris Livas-Dawes calls for marine reserves in the Hull Daily Mail of 21st July:
A recent correspondent complained about the EU’s Common Fisheries Policy, and I certainly agree it is a disaster. Like the Common Agricultural Policy, also a disaster, it is devised by politicians who ignore science. What that correspondent failed to mention is that a bill to improve the character of British seas, including our North Sea, is making its way though parliament, just having exited the House of Lords and moved to the Commons.
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Tags: MARINET
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