Watching The Wildlife Trusts’ president Sir David Attenborough enthuse about the wonders of our Blue Planet for the new BBC series, we were given tantalising glimpses of an amazing underwater world. These wonders are not limited to tropical islands or the cold arctic though. Our seas around the UK coast are worth boasting about too. 

Take a look at this short film, which reveals a breathtaking world below the waves. Made by one of our volunteers, these creatures live off the Cornish coast, in an area where the seas are protected, called the Manacles.

The film shows a reef populated with sea fans which although they look like plants, are in fact a colony of anemone-like animals whose tentacles capture any food passing by. Look closer and you’ll see superbly camouflaged sea slugs (nudibranchs) hiding on the fan itself. Jewel anemones in pinks and orange light up the reef, and a colour changing and shape shifting cuttlefish, with piercing W shaped eyes swims by.

While there is much to celebrate, our seas all over the world are seriously under threat from over fishing, waters becoming more acidic, pollution and unsustainable development.

And that’s why today The Wildlife Trusts have launched a new report which sets a challenge to the government to bring back living seas.

Firstly, we want the government to make a commitment that all EU regulations that provide protective measures for our seas are brought across unaltered, into UK legislation.

We’re challenging the government to make the UK a world leader in marine conservation by:

• Ensuring we have a well-managed ecological network of areas where the seas are protected (MPAs) in all UK waters.
• Ensuring future fisheries management continues to allow stocks to recover and outlaws any discards.
• Planning our seas so there is space for nature to recover and so that industry has more certainty about areas where it can develop or fish.
• Reducing pollution now! Ensuring pollutants which end up in our seas are significantly reduced.

And finally, we’re asking that we all consider our impact on this amazing blue planet. Everyone can play their part in creating living seas, seas which can sustain and delight us for generations to come.