News
Give seas a chance!
20th January 2010
Suffolk Wildlife Trust launches vision for Living Seas
Suffolk Wildlife Trust has launched Living Seas, its vision for the UK’s marine environment – where wildlife thrives from the depths of the ocean to the coastal shallows; where rocky reefs are bursting with brightly coloured fish, corals and sponges, and dolphins and seals dart among the waves – at an event in the House of Commons with Professor Aubrey Manning, BBC television presenter and president of The Wildlife Trusts.
The launch follows the passing, in November, of the Marine and Coastal Access Act (MCAA), for which The Wildlife Trusts campaigned for nearly a decade. The challenge for the next five years is to ensure the Act is effectively implemented – that urgent action is taken to turn the UK’s over-fished, over-exploited, and currently under-protected waters back into a thriving marine environment. The Wildlife Trusts have a clear vision for how this should happen, and a plan for achieving it within 20 years, a single generation.
The Wildlife Trusts are achieving great things across the UK, working at the local level to understand, protect and raise awareness of our marine wildlife and habitats, from seagrass meadows to dolphins and seals.
In a few places, we are even starting to see possible signs of our seas recovering. Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust has recorded an increase in seal numbers at Donna Nook each year since 2007, and there are early signs of recovery in the fragile ecosystem of the Lyme Bay reefs, where The Wildlife Trusts’ campaign achieved a ban on scallop-dredging in 2008.
At the launch of the Living Seas vision¹ yesterday Julian Roughton chief executive of Suffolk Wildlife Trust said: “The Living Seas vision is very direct in its aims. It sets out a clear plan of how we, The Wildlife Trusts, and our partners and supporters, can help achieve them. The opportunities that the Marine and Coastal Access Act has opened up need to be seized on immediately. We can no longer continue to treat the oceans as limitless. In particular, we need an effective and well-managed network of Marine Protected Areas by 2012.
“We may not get another opportunity to make Living Seas a reality. The future of our oceans hangs in the balance, and we want to tip it in the right direction for wildlife, and for the people – all of us – who depend upon it.”
The Living Seas launch also coincided with Suffolk’s first Net Gain meeting in Lowestoft, which is a forum for people who use and value the sea to express their views so that they themselves can help identify the Marine Conservation Zone sites that are needed to meet the government’s targets.
“Now the journey really begins. We have in place the necessary legislation to allow the creation of an ecologically coherent network of Marine Protected Areas. This network will be implemented through four regional Marine Conservation Zone projects – the North Sea Project is called Net Gain. Our job is to ensure the MPA network is established with wildlife at the heart, protecting not only the rare and threatened but a range of marine species and habitats. Through input into the Net Gain project the Wildlife Trusts will provide information and data supporting the establishment of Marine Conservation Zones,” says Julian.
For further information please contact Suffolk Wildlife Trust on 01473 890089
1. The Living Seas vision report is available to download from The Wildlife Trusts’ website www.wildlifetrusts.org
Editors' notes:
The beautiful Suffolk coastline incorporates both an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and Heritage Coast. It features:
- Over 60 miles of low-lying coast comprises crumbling cliffs, shingle beaches and coastal lagoons, all rich in wildlife.
- Offshore, extensive sandy plains are a home to huge beds of striped venus clams, burrowing brittle stars and heart urchins, also known as sea potatoes.
- Vast sandy plains are punctuated by shipwrecks, forming colourful artificial reefs cloaked in sponges, anemones and hydroids.
- The open water of the Suffolk coast is home to commercially important species such as cod and herring, while sole and plaice inhabit the seafloor.
- The Suffolk coast is proposed as a Special Protection Area as, with the Outer Thames, it holds 38% of the UK’s wintering red-throated divers.
- The Wildlife Trusts (TWT) www.wildlifetrusts.org
There are 47 Wildlife Trusts across the whole of the UK, the Isle of Man and Alderney. We are working for an environment rich in wildlife for everyone. With 791,000 members, we are the largest UK voluntary organisation dedicated to conserving the full range of the UK’s habitats and species, whether they be in the countryside, in cities or at sea. 135,000 of our members belong to our junior branch, Wildlife Watch. We manage 2,256 nature reserves covering more than 90,000 hectares; we stand up for wildlife; we inspire people about the natural world and we foster sustainable living. - Living Seas
The Wildlife Trusts have been campaigning for many years for comprehensive legislation to achieve better protection for marine wildlife and the effective management of our seas. For more information, click here Living Seas - Picture caption:
NAME, POSITION for XX Wildlife Trust is pictured with XX at the launch of the Living Seas vision on Tuesday 19 January at the House of Commons.
