Protected areas of sea across the UK nonetheless endure hundreds of hours of essentially the most damaging sorts of fishing yearly, Sky News finds.
There are 91 Marine Conservation Zones (MCZs) round Britain that are designated for nationally vital, uncommon or threatened habitats and species.
But information obtained by Global Fishing Watch reveals that since January 2022 there was over 90,000 hours of fishing in these waters, together with 2,700 hours of dredging.
A dredger acts slightly bit like a plough on the seabed, catching primarily flatfish and scallops however destroying a lot of the encircling habitat within the course of. Many conservation teams wish to see it outlawed, particularly in protected areas.
Clive Mills, a fisherman and diver based mostly in Bognor Regis, stated: “If you saw a farmer doing something wrong on a field, you could video that and report it within hours. Out there, you don’t know what’s going on underneath the sea, but it’s going to be worse.”
But the irony is that a lot of this dredge fishing is definitely authorized. There are so few guidelines and so little enforcement that these protected areas have been described as merely paper parks, simply strains on a map, not serving to the ocean life that lives there.
Henri Brocklebank, from Sussex Wildlife Trust, says many species want that protected haven.
“We’re in a situation where we’ve lost 99% of our angel sharks in the UK, 95% of basking sharks, 85% seagrass. Here in Sussex, we’ve lost 96% of our kelp. We need to actually start turning this around before it’s too late.”
The reply does not must be an finish to all fishing. Sky News caught up with Mr Mills as he was mending his lobster pots and nets on the seaside on a day too tough to launch. His technique makes use of static gear with little or no collateral harm.
“The nets sit there and the fish swim into them. But the impact on the seabed is so minimal… it recovers within hours,” he stated.
Sky News requested the federal government why dredging was nonetheless allowed in locations they’ve acknowledged as deserving safety. Their assertion did not tackle that however they stated: “We aim to have all Marine Protected Areas protected from damaging fishing activity by 2024… additionally, we recently designated the first Highly Protected Marine Areas.”
Source: information.sky.com”