Environment
Saving our seas Are Marine Protected Areas effective in protecting sea life?
BY SANDY NEIL
T
he UK and EU are creating more and more Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) as they rush to meet a UN goal of protecting 30% of the world’s oceans by 2030. Conservationists, however, argue that most MPAs actually provide little or no protection against human activity. So, are MPAs fit for purpose? Should they be reformed or replaced now that the UK is officially out of the Common Fisheries Policy? Water covers 70% of the Earth’s surface and a significant 7.66% of that, or 27,761,227km2 to be exact, is comprised of 17,495 Marine Protected Areas or “MPAs”. They vary in size from the largest MPA in the world, the first Antarctic MPA encompassing 1.55 million km2 in the Ross Sea, to one of the smallest: 0.8 hectares of water surrounding the wreck of the HMS Dartmouth, which sank in the Sound of Mull in 1690. MPA is a catch-all term, but in essence such areas restrict human activity for a conservation purpose, typically to protect natural or cultural resources. These marine resources are protected by local, state, territorial, native, regional, national, or international authorities, and differ substantially among and between nations. This variation could be different limitations on development, fishing practices, seasons and catch limits, moorings, and bans on removing or disrupting marine life. Some restrictions include “no-take” zones, which means no fishing of wild stocks is allowed. One of the most common management systems, as found in the UK, is the MPA network, defined as: “A group of MPAs that interact with one another ecologically and/or socially form a network.” The UK’s MPA network protects a wide range of marine life, with hundreds of sites covering nearly a quarter of UK waters, and representing a wide spectrum of habitats and species. Within this network there are many types of MPA designation, including Marine Conservation Zones (MCZs), Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) with marine components, Special Protection Areas (SPAs) with marine components, Nature Conservation MPAs, and national MPAs in Scotland.
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The number of MPAs continues to grow rapidly in the seas surrounding the UK, as the four governments of Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland strive to meet the UN’s ambitious goal of protecting 10% of the world’s oceans by 2020, and then 30% by 2030. The UK is already beating that target comfortably, creating 371 MPAs since 2013 covering 38% of UK waters; to be exact, 338,049km2 from a total of 885,430km2. On top of all this, the UK has also created some of the world’s largest MPAs within the 6.8 million square kilometres of ocean it controls around British Overseas Territories. Most notably this includes the 830,000km2 Pitcairn Islands Marine Reserve in the Southern Pacific, for a time the biggest MPA on Earth when it was designated in 2015. In November 2020, a 687,247km2 “no take zone” was designated in the vast ocean around the world’s remotest inhabited island, Tristan Da Cunha. The new MPA is three times the size of Britain. It is the largest no-take zone in the Atlantic, and the fourth largest on the planet. Last September the Scottish Government designated Europe’s largest MPA, the 107,718km2 West of Scotland MPA, in the deepest parts of Scotland’s seas lying at 2,500m. It provides protection to 14 vulnerable habitats and species, including the leafscale gulper shark, orange roughy and Portuguese dogfish. In December Scottish ministers created four more inshore MPAs: North-east Lewis, Sea of the
Last “ September
the Scottish Government designated Europe’s largest MPA
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www.fishfarmermagazine.com
11/01/2021 15:12:07
