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The Marine Protection Area Fishing Coalition, of which the NFFO is a core member, has said it is continuing its important role of holding Government and its statutory advisors, Natural England and Joint Nature Conservation , to account. The Coalition raised key issues relating to the process of establishing a network of marine protected areas in UK waters at a recent meeting in London. Fifteen new zones have now been earmarked.
The NFFO said the Coalition’s interventions had established one very important point of principle. At the meeting, Natural England announced that it will play no role in the design, implementation or enforcement of the management measures that will apply within marine conservation zones or the European Special Areas of Conservation once they have been designated.
That will be left to the relevant . Although the distinction between advisors to government and fisheries managers might seem obvious, the NFFO says Natural England’s public statements and attitudes during its expansionist phase, often gave the opposite impression; so this clarification is important. The Coalition has regularly criticised confusion in the way that Natural England has defined its role: sometimes advisor to government, sometimes sounding and behaving like an environmental NGO, and often assuming to itself the mantle of management decisions. Those criticisms are now shown to have been effective.
The Coalition also raised the damage done to Natural England’s credibility as dispassionate, impartial and rigorous advisors to government by the revelations in the press, following a Freedom of Information request, by Terri Portman of Scott Trawlers.
"The information obtained under the freedom request suggested a less than transparent process at the time that the Lyme Bay closure was introduced. There is no doubting the seriousness of the charge, nor Natural England’s determination to repair the damage. Having committed itself to an open, evidence-based process in the establishment of marine conservation zones, the suggestion that Natural England suppressed crucial, but for them uncomfortable science regarding the scarcity of pink sea fans couldn’t be more embarrassing. Natural England hopes that a no-holds barred interview with the Editor of Fishing News will end the matter. Time will tell."
The NFFO said from the outset, the Coalition has been critical about the artificial and unrealistic timetable set by ministers for the establishment of a network of MPAs, which is wholly inconsistent with gathering an adequate evidence base, or for a process in which stakeholders have a genuine influence. The Coalition was frankly scornful when both NE and Defra claimed that there was “no evidence that the timetable could not be met”. The quality of the evidence base and the degree to which the four regional projects are genuine stakeholder led processes, or manipulative box ticking exercises, are issues that have yet to be settled. All of this is intimately linked to the question of what is possible within an unrealistic timetable, it argues.
Should fisheries be closed during breeding time to allow stocks to reach more sustainable levels?
