Brown Urged to Save Our Seas

The Wildlife Trusts call for Marine Bill

The Wildlife Trusts are urgently campaigning for Gordon Brown to include a Marine Bill in the next Queen's Speech (Nov) to protect marine habitats and wildlife. Despite the Government pledging to include the bill as part of its manifesto commitment, the Prime Minister has failed to list it in his priority Bills for 2007-8. 

The Wildlife Trusts are calling for a suite of Marine Reserves – areas of sea from which all damaging activities are excluded. In their report launched today, ‘Marine Reserves – TLC for our seas and sea life’, The Wildlife Trusts name 15 important wildlife areas around the UK coast to illustrate how Marine Reserves might protect wildlife and contribute towards healthy seas. 

Less than 0.001% of the UK’s sea area is fully protected from damaging activities such as fishing and gravel dredging.  Fragile habitats - such as seagrass meadows and maerl beds (a rare habitat built by a coral-like seaweed, home to 500+ species) - have been destroyed, and species such as bottlenose dolphins and corals are in decline. 

In a UK-wide ICM poll commissioned by The Wildlife Trusts, nine out of ten people said that in circumstances where sea life is threatened by commercial activity, such as industrial fishing or dredging, priority should be given to protecting nature, even if this means putting restrictions on where commercial activities can take place.

Joan Edwards, Head of Marine Policy at The Wildlife Trusts, said: “Less than a thousandth of one per cent of the UK’s sea area is fully protected for wildlife. On land, that would be equivalent to a single nature reserve the size of Kensington Gardens. It’s inexcusable that our seas have been neglected for so long. The Government has promised a Marine Bill that will create Marine Reserves - areas that are fully protected from damage - and we will do everything in our power to make sure that they keep that promise.”

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