Today, the Marine Management Organisation has announced proposals to ban damaging fishing activity within 13 English Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), covering an area of over 4,000 km2. These proposals could help move 13 more MPAs away from simply being “paper parks”, written on paper but with no real protection at sea.
The draft byelaws would protect important rock and reef habitats from damage by bottom-towed fishing gears which drag along the seabed and crush fragile marine life. Cold-water corals, reef-forming worms, sea urchins, sponges and other important species will be protected in important offshore areas such as such as Cape Bank, Haig Fras and Goodwin Sands.
However, despite it making scientific and regulatory sense to manage MPAs as whole-sites, protecting everything within their boundaries, it’s disappointing that these bylaws will cover just three MPAs in their entirety, leaving other areas in the remaining 10 MPAs open to damage. I hope the next stage of the MMO’s assessment of management measures will ensure these MPAs will be protected to their full extent.
Also today, the Marine Management Organisation has opened a call for evidence and views on impact assessments for all remaining fishing gear interactions with seabed protected features in 41 offshore MPAs, as part of the last stage of the MMO’s programme to assess and introduce necessary fisheries management measures for all offshore MPAs in England by 2024.
While these proposals are good news for our seas, these marine areas and decades of marine conservation progress are still at risk if the Government doesn’t scrap the Retained EU Law Bill, which threatens to bin the very laws which designate and protect these vital MPAs. With the bill scheduled for its report stage in the House of Commons this week, it’s vital we continue to speak up for our seas and #DefendNature.