News from the UK Marine Protected Areas Centre

New environmental damage and liability regulations for the UK

Monday 09th of November 2009

New regulations concerning the liability and remediation of environmental damage have been brought into effect for each of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Taking effect last March, the regulations apply to businesses, charities and public sectors engaging in 'economic activities' but will not cover purely domestic or recreational activities. The Marine and Fisheries Agency will be responsible for enforcing regulations concerning biodiversity at sea, and the Environment Agency, Natural England and local authorities will cover other regions.. http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/netregs/legislation/current/104965.aspx

Recovering the world's marine ecosystems

Friday 30th of October 2009

A new paper published in Science examines some of the most-studied of the world's fisheries and finds that over 60% of them need to be rebuilt. Although much success in managing and recovering stocks has been seen in certain areas (e.g. Kenya), rebuilding others may take decades and requires traditional, community-based efforts in combination with closures, gear restrictions and zoning of separate management areas for fishing and for conservation.. http://ec.europa.eu/environment/integration/research/newsalert/pdf/171na1.pdf

Impending collapse of bluefin tuna in NE Atlantic and Med

Thursday 29th of October 2009

A recent study by American and Danish researchers, published in Conservation Letters, warns that management plans by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) will legally allow the entire adult bluefin population to be caught in years leading up to 2011. The paper warns that overfishing combined with an inability to cope with poor reproductive years will result in a 90% decline in adult biomass within three generations.. http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/fulltext/121502255/PDFSTART

Latest Marine Bill policy paper

Wednesday 28th of October 2009

DEFRA has released a new paper on the policies of the Marine and Coastal Access Bill. The document outlines changes since the last draft of the bill (April 3rd, 2008) and discusses the eleven sections of the bill, including marine planning, licensing, fisheries legislation, enforcement and coastal access.. http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/marine/documents/legislation/mab-policy.pdf

The role of fishermen in MPA design and acheiving sustainable fisheries

Wednesday 28th of October 2009

A BBC editorial by Phil MacMullen of SeaFish discusses the importance and challenges of marine spatial planning for MPA design in acheiving sustainable fisheries. He identifies fishermen as an essential part of the management process and that each MPA site should be identified based on its human, as well as ecological, characteristics. Fishermen can provide first-hand information on site features for monitoring and research and often comply with restricted and closed areas on a voluntary basis. He argues "Fishermen have been an easy target for much that is wrong with the marine environment today but that's not fair. The industry has changed and we all need to look further ahead to some much more fundamental problems.". http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8320983.stm

International Conference on MPAs scheduled for December 8-9

Monday 26th of October 2009

An international conference on MPAs, 'Sea change: securing a future for Europe's seas', is scheduled for December 8 & 9 in London. The meeting promotes the exchange of ideas between European countries and will develop partnerships among member states. Delegates are invited from the fields of marine management, policy making, conservation, science, NGOs, industry, the voluntary sector and Government.. http://www.livegroup.co.uk/seachange09/index.php?view=introduction

German conference on progress in marine conservation- Nov 2-6

Thursday 22nd of October 2009

The 2nd International Conference on Progress in Marine Conservation in Europe is scheduled to be held November 2-6 in Stralsund, Germany. The discussion of current marine nature conservation will be directed at 250 attendees, including policy makers, conservation managers, scientists and inter- and non-governmental organizations. The conference is hosted by the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation and the German Oceanographic Museum.. http://www.bfn.de/habitatmare/de/aktuelles-progress-in-marine-conservation-in-europe-2009.php

Ocean health- conserving our natural carbon capture systems

Monday 19th of October 2009

UNEP has released a report on the importance of healthy marine ecosystems, which absorb large amounts of carbon from the atmosphere. While many industrial businesses focus on developing artificial carbon capture and storage (CCS) methods, paying developing countries to conserve and enhance natural marine CSS ecosystems may be more cost effective, as their carbon mitigation abilities have been researched.. http://www.unep.org/Documents.Multilingual/Default.asp?DocumentID=599

Natural England proposes new SACs and SPAs

Monday 19th of October 2009

Natural England, JNCC and CCW have proposed new Special Areas of Conservation (SAC) and Special Protection Areas (SPA) as part of the UK's committment to the Natura 2000 goal. Natural England has proposed 8 draft SACs and 2 potential SPAs in English inshore waters. JNCC is proposing further sites offshore and CCW is proposing sites in Welsh inshore waters.. http://www.naturalengland.org.uk/ourwork/marine/sacconsultation/default.aspx

Will the Scottish Marine Bill do enough?

Wednesday 14th of October 2009

An independent report has been released by the Scottish Association for Marine Science (through Scottish Environment LINK), which questions whether the Scottish Marine Bill will be able to reverse the decline in populations of several species, including cod, herring, maerl and native oysters. Through a series of case studies, the report emphasises the need for marine policy that does more than just maintaining stocks at depleted levels.. http://www.scotlink.org/pdf/SAMS%20Report%20with%20LINK%20Foreword.pdf

Identifying global land-sea priority areas for coastal marine conservation

Wednesday 14th of October 2009

A new paper in the journal Conservation Letters quantifies land-based impacts on world-wide coastal marine ecosystems. The three most-threatened areas were identified as estuaries of the Mississippi in the US, the Ganges in India and the Mekong in Vietnam. The study also finds that 95% of continental shelf regions and 40% of coastlines globally experience little or no land-based human impacts.. http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/122380543/abstract

New document on Scottish Marine Bill

Monday 12th of October 2009

The Scottish Government has released a booklet on the Scottish Marine Bill, which was introduced to Scottish Parliament earlier this year. The document outlines what the Bill will do for marine conservation and planning and the work underway in the planning process. The path by which new Marine Protected Areas will be created and proposed licensing systems for marine industry are also outlined.. http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/286295/0087185.pdf