The Wildlife Trusts welcome UK’s first Marine Conservation Zone
Tuesday 12th January 2010
As an area off the coast of Lundy Island today becomes the UK’s first Marine Conservation Zone (MCZ), The Wildlife Trusts welcome the new powers of protection - under the Marine & Coastal Access Act - and look forward to the creation of many more MCZs by the end of 2012.
The Wildlife Trusts support this milestone, which signals the start of the creation of Marine Conservation Zones in English, Welsh and UK waters – nationally important sites inshore and offshore – for the benefit of wildlife and people.
The waters off Lundy Island, in the Bristol Channel, were declared a Marine Nature Reserve back in 1986. In 2003, a small part of the reserve was established as a ‘No Take Zone’, with all fishing banned. Within five years, wildlife in the ‘No Take Zone’ was already showing signs of recovery, with large lobsters seven times more abundant than in the surrounding area. Now, with the Marine & Coastal Act replacing the laws that created the Lundy Marine Nature Reserve, the protected area is to be re-launched as the first Marine Conservation Zone.
Joan Edwards, The Wildlife Trusts’ head of Living Seas, said: “This is an important moment. The next few years could be the most crucial period in history for the protection and management of UK seas and today marks the first steps towards achieving this.
“Our seas and sea life have a remarkable capacity to recover if given the chance. The Wildlife Trusts are looking forward to working with the conservation agencies to secure designation of new sites and ensure the necessary protective measures are put in place. They will all play their part in creating carefully designed and well managed networks of protected areas which will boost the health of the marine environment as a whole.”
Story by RSWT