This was a truly momentous event in the history of our seas and a fabulous step towards achieving ‘Living Seas’, the Wildlife Trust’s vision in which wildlife thrives from the depths of the ocean to the coastal shallows.
Our seas and sea life have a remarkable capacity to recover, but only if given the chance. This Act was a huge legislative leap forward for marine conservation.
If effectively implemented, it provides the unique opportunity to conserve marine habitats and species around the English coast and start to manage the marine ecosystem as a whole.
So, what’s changing?
- The new Marine Management Organisation (MMO), has been set up nationally to oversee all marine matters.
- A strategic, comprehensive planning system for all marine activities is being developed. Businesses and marine industries will benefit from a more streamlined consenting and licensing system.
- Inshore fisheries are no longer managed by Sea Fisheries Committees but by new modernised organisations called Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authorities (IFCAs). These IFCAs will have a broader environmental remit as well as stronger legislation to enable better enforcement.
- A network of Marine Conservation Zones (MCZs) will be created that will protect marine species and habitats. Legislation to enable the creation of Marine Conservation Zone’s has been central to the Wildlife Trust’s campaign for years. MCZs provide an opportunity to halt and reverse the damage and degradation of the marine environment by controlling the human activities conducted in certain areas.
These are exciting times for marine conservation. Our survey work, such as Seasearch dive surveys and Seaquest sightings, has shown there are some fantastic spots for wildlife beneath Cornish waters, and highlighted some of the rich and diverse areas that may need or benefit from protection.
The process to determine where MCZs should be placed was co-ordinated in the south west by a partnership project called Finding Sanctuary. Finding Sanctuary has been working with all stakeholders to plan new MCZs in the south west and their recommendations to Government have now been made. 2012 will see public consulation on MCZs before they are finally designated.
The Marine Act represents the culmination of many years of campaigning by the Wildlife Trusts and we hope it will live up to our high expectations and give us the tools we need to help us protect our marine environment. We now have the legislation to really make a difference – but this is when the job really starts, to set the marine environment on the road to recovery! If we succeed, we will have achieved something our children and grandchildren will thank us for.
We are again campaigning and lobbying the Government - this time to ensure that the proposed network of Marine Conservation Zones is strong, well managed and ecologically coherent. Join our campaign by signing a scale on the Petition Fish. 
