Projects

Marine Conservation Society

Seasearch volunteer collecting data (photograph courtesy of Joe Foxcroft/ MCS). Global Ocean supports the work of the Marine Conservation Society (MCS) and has dedicated some of 2010’s funds to:

Seasearch

Seasearch is a UK based volunteering initiative for sports divers interested in the marine environment and conservation issues. It is coordinated by the MCS and aims to map the different types of seabed around the UK coast as well as to collect data on the local marine life, to highlight key areas that are in need of protection.

2010 has been an extremely successful year for Seasearch and so far 2053 data forms have been submitted with 2010 data. A summery of the 2010 achievements can be found HERE

Last summer Seasearch also revisited Lyme Bay to assess the state of the seabed since the cessation of scallop dredging in 2008. Thankfully there has already been some evidence of recovery of the seabed habitats, highlighting that areas damaged by destructive scallop dredging can improve when the pressure is removed. See HERE for a full update.

In addition Seasearch data has been extensively used for the MCS ‘Your Seas Your Voice’ campaign, aiming to encourage the public to contribute their opinion to proposed protected sites around the UK.

Read the latest update on this project HERE.

Legal work

MCS has been gathering evidence on illegal fishing activities in Special Areas of Conservation and has sent a Freedom of Information request to Natural England to gather information on ongoing damaging activities in new SACs.

Scallop dredger in Falmouth before they were banned (photograph courtesy of MSC).

From this correspondence it has been reveled that there has been continuing damaging fishing activities in the areas of the new South Devon candidate Special Areas of Conservation, particularly in the case of eastern Lyme Bay. MCS has written to the statutory authorities to regulate this damaging activity – but unfortunately they’re waiting for ‘more evidence’ before taking any measures.

In response to this MCS is meeting with lawyers later this month to take the next steps. Jean-Luc Solandt (MSC Biodiversity Policy Officer) has also presented the legal work on damaging fishing in current MPAs, and implications for the future MPA network at the Coastal Futures conference on 20th January.

Banner Image: Courtesy of Phil Lightfoot, Sue Daly and Chris Wood.