This government has been hopeless at doing things for nature. Almost completely hopeless. The Marine and Coastal Access Act received Royal Assent in November 2009. Then there was a general election in May 2010 and everything ground to a halt. Defra has dropped several proposed Marine Conservation Zones from the current consultation because of ‘economic…
Category: MARINE PROTECTION
It makes so much sense
This blog has argued for the UK government to work with the administrations of the UK Overseas Territories to create massive marine conservation zones. If we have the relicts of an empire we might as well use them to protect the world’s natural resources. Today 100+ people including a bunch of top bods of environmental…
New Wildlife Trust report
Today a new report, Save Our Ocean Giants – the protected areas we need for dolphins, whales and basking sharks, identifies 17 important ‘megafauna hotspots’ around our shores for the first time and highlights the need to protect them. Farnes East, Coquet to St Marys – notable for white-beaked dolphin, harbour porpoise and minke whale….
A few things
Big Garden Birdwatch is this weekend. It’s more fun, probably, if you remember to fill your bird feeders than if you don’t! John Armitage’s e-petition on licensing of grouse moors and gamekeepers is gathering a little pace – and has passed 7,800 signatures. There are four weeks to go. If you keep meaning to sign…
That CAPs the year off nicely – not!
The decision of the coalition government to reject the Secretary of State for the Environment’s recommendation of a full 15% rate of modulation for the CAP (and go for 12% instead) caps off an awful year for wildlife in England; – glacially slow and inadequate progress on MCZs – UK opposition to a neonic ban…
Minox challenge – MARINElife by Andrew McLeish
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Why MARINElife deserves the public’s support If you were a traveller, holiday-maker or whale watching enthusiast in the mid 90’s you may have been among the hundreds of thousands of people who travelled across the Bay of Biscay on board P&O’s flagship ferry service ‘The Pride of Bilbao’. The ‘Billy’ as she was fondly known…
SOC Conference
I very much enjoyed the SOC Conference in Troon. The SOC made me feel young – not for many decades have I stayed up until 0330 drinking and talking like I did on Friday night (Saturday morning). There were lots of great talks but I’ll stick to a seabird theme here – partly because I…
A message from Pitcairn
Last week I met two islanders from Pitcairn; Melva Warren Evans and Simon Young. We met in London and I asked them about their hopes for the Pitcairn protected marine area which their community wants to see the UK government establish. Melva was born on Pitcairn and is one of the descendents of the crew…
Pitcairn revisited
A little while ago I received an invitation to an event which will be held towards the end of the month concerning the future of the seas around the Pitcairn Islands. I was quite interested in attending until I saw that it was in Marseille. However, this blog has shown an interest in marine protected…
Now that the Party (Conference) is over…
Did you comb the speeches of the Party leaders, at their Party Conferences, for mentions of the environment? Nick Clegg did best – he said that it was the Liberal Democrats who were keeping the Government ‘green’ and had ‘saved’ Natural England from the axe. Nick Clegg didn’t mention ‘wildlife’ or ‘nature’ but he did…