Marine protected areas – Page 3

South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands consultation launched

Mark May 1, 2015July 17, 2018 Comments Off

It’s good to see that yesterday a consultation was launched on the South Georgia and South Sandwich Island Strategy 2016-2020 to ‘stakeholders and interested parties’. I responded to an earlier consultation on the seas around South Georgia and I will be reading this strategy closely. There are no permanent or indigenous inhabitants of the land…

Politicians all at sea

Mark April 22, 2015July 17, 2018 Comments Off

Let’s start at home – for we English anyway. On Friday, a consultation closes on whether the government should go ahead with a further tranche of designation of Marine Conservation Zones. And the answer is ‘they should’. The UK Marine and Coastal Planning Act is five and a half years old. Under its provisions Marine …

Defra – what are you for? (4)

Mark February 11, 2015July 17, 2018 12 Comments

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…

It makes so much sense

Mark February 9, 2015July 17, 2018 4 Comments

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

Mark November 4, 2014July 17, 2018 9 Comments

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….