|
THE Marine Protection Area Fishing Coalition has expressed serious reservations about the site selection for the marine coastal zones announced last week.
It says that at their worst the four 'Projects' have deliberately selected sites in areas and on sea bed that forms the basis for sustainable fisheries – mud and the nephrops fishery being the worst example. The harmful economic, social and environmental consequences of this approach have been ignored.
The NFFO, which is a key member of the Coalition, said: " The need to protect rare and vulnerable marine life is understood and supported by all associated with the MPA Fishing Coalition."
As the NFFO issued its statement, fishermen in South East England have already expressed fears about the impact of such zones on their own livelihood.
The coalition said: "Nonetheless, the percentage targets required in the ecological network guidance provided by statutory nature conservation bodies to guide the selection process goes well beyond what is reasonable or justifiable, given that some estimates put the trawling footprint as covering between 5.4 per cent and 21.4 per cent of English and Welsh waters." Even “rare and threatened” features have already turned out to be quite common when the evidence has been gathered.
Taking stock, the coalition has engaged Government and the statutory nature conservancy bodies at the highest levels and held them to detailed account. In doing so, it has forced Defra, the MMO and the statutory nature conservancy bodies to address a number of critically important questions that were previously in the shadows including the rushed time frame, a weak fishing industry representation and the problem around displacing fishing vessels from their customary grounds.
These and other matters affecting fishing could be traced back to the Marine and Coastal Access Act, passed into law in an atmosphere of feverish moral panic and which inadequately addressed how to achieve an appropriate balance between the marine environment and human use.
The NFFO said one of the immediate tasks facing the coalition was to right the wrongs in the recommendations or at least to ensure that they didn’t go forward as candidate MCZs to become part of the designated network.
It adds: "The MPA Fishing Coalition has served its purpose well through the regional project recommendation process and will now turn to the task of resisting poorly conceived site selections and ensuring that management measures are applied in a fair and balanced way."
Should people be 'stimulated' to eat white fish alternatives to cod?
