Marine Reserves

Many fish stocks in the seas around the UK are in a state of collapse due to overfishing and much of the marine environment has been badly damaged by bottom trawling and activities such as aggregate dredging. One of our members, Malcolm Hunter, is a member of the national campaign team for the MARINET Marine Reserves Campaign, who are campaigning for substantial areas to be set aside as marine reserves, with all fishing and mineral extraction banned.  We believe that the establishment of such refuges is the only way to ensure the long term survival of fish stocks and the long term survival of a fishing industry.

We believe that there needs to be a duty on the Government to designate a minimum of 30% of UK waters, out to 200 nautical miles, as highly protected marine reserves, as recommended by a recent Royal Commission report.  The legal opinion that we have obtained is that implementation of these measures would not require renegotiation of the EU Common Fisheries Policy, as long as the reserves are for the protection of the marine environment as a whole (which is what we propose), rather than just to protect fish stocks.

For more on why we need this extensive network of marine reserves see this briefing prepared for MPs.

A Marine Bill is currently before Parliament. As well as establishing a more coherent and integrated system for managing marine issues current Government proposals would make some provision for setting up protected areas.  This Bill provides a golden opportunity to do something about safeguarding fish stocks and the marine environment in general, before it is too late; however, we believe that the Government's proposals do not go nearly far enough.  Setting up protected areas will be at the discretion of ministers; there are no proposals to extend protection outside of the 12 mile limit of the UK's territorial waters, into our 200 mile exclusive economic zone and the proposed level of protection offered to most protected areas will be very limited.  

To try to get the Bill strengthened MARINET, Friends of the Earth's marine network, has organized the MARINET Marine Reserves Campaign.  This campaign is working with other organizations, such as Greenpeace, WWF, the Marine Conservation Society, the RSPB and the Wildlife Trusts, to try to ensure that the UK marine environment is given the protection that it needs.  

Our lobbying was successful in getting the joint committee of MPs and peers, who looked at the original draft of the Bill, to back most of what we are campaigning for; however, few of their recommendations had been taken on board by the Government, when the Bill was introduced, so it is now a case of trying to apply maximum pressure to get strengthening ammendments as it goes through Parliament.   The last opportunity to do this will come on the 26th of October, when the Bill has its report stage in the House of Commons.  We are asking people to contact their MP, before then, to urge them to back  strengthening amendments.  I have posted both a draft letter and a copy of the e-mail that I have sent to all our local MPs in the marine section of our archive,  if anyone wants to use, or adapt either.  If e-mailing your MP, the format for their Parliamentary e-mail address takes the form smithj@parliament.uk (for a John Smith, although there is occasionally  a second initial, if two MPs share a surname and first initial).

Finally, if you would like to help with the campaign, you can sign up on the campaign website, which also has a lot more information.

"They are stripping the oceans bare" - "30%, the naked truth"

In Leicester we have had a fair bit of success in getting media attention by dressing up.  Another way of getting media attention is by undressing.  The fact that our seas are being "stripped" of fish by over-exploitation and the way that bottom trawling and aggregate dredging "strips" the sea bed of all life suggests an appropriate slogan around which to do this - "they are stripping the oceans bare", plus a supplementary slogan, to highlight what we want to do about it - "30%, the naked truth".  

There are a number of recent precedents for such actions, including Greenpeace's recent photo shoot on a glacier, the annual World Naked Bike Ride, which takes place in June and the recent naked protests by pensioners, who had been "stripped" of their occupational pensions.              

Pursuing this idea, I organized a naked photo shoot on Brighton naturist beach, as a follow on from the 2008 Brighton World Naked Bike and also took part in the ride itself, to publicize the campaign (except I ran, because I have never learn't to ride a bike - see photo above).  

The shoot got some publicity, but was rather overshadowed by the ride itself. Also my digital camera got splashed by a wave and wrecked, which meant that I lost all my photos and wasn't able to use them to generate further coverage. Despite the fact that the photo shoot was only a partial success I repeated my participation on this theme, by running in the in the 2009 London ride, adding the additional slogan, "we are running out of time".  I was also able to generate some good publicity from this, although at the cost of some personal pain, as I was in collision with a bike, right at the end.  This was rapidly followed by my face being in collision with the road, leaving me with two broken teeth; stitches in my lip and chin; and an impressive crop of bruises and grazes,

Malcolm Hunter
MARINET Marine Reserves Campaign
& Leicester FoE Media Officer and webmaster
 

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