Petition Fish 2
Act now! Our seas urgently need your help!
Paul Naylor
The Wildlife Trusts campaign on national and local issues that affect wildlife and the natural environment. Petition Fish 2 is underway and our seas need your help now...
Petition Fish 2
Act now to save our Marine Conservation Zones.
Please read on to see how you can help.
The Background
After years of pressure from The Wildlife Trusts and a huge amount of public support, the Marine and Coastal Access Act of 2009 promised us an ecologically coherent network of Marine Protected Areas around the coast by 2012. One exciting outcome of this was a brand new classification of protected area, a Marine Conservation Zone (MCZ). Over the last two years and a lot of hard work, four regional stakeholder groups have put forward 127 MCZs for consultation and designation. We have been, and still are, using Petition Fish 2 to campaign for the protection of these areas, and so the protection of our marine life - the protection of our Living Seas.
However, the future protection of these 127 MCZs is now at risk
Through our recent discussions with Defra and the Statutory Nature Conservation Bodies (SNCBs), it has become obvious that they do not intend to even consult next year on all 127 sites. Indeed one senior representative of the SNCBs has suggested that only 30 or 40 sites will ever be designated.
Please act now
We need to demonstrate the importance and urgency of the Marine Conservation Zone network to the Parliament Under-Secretary for Natural Environment and Fisheries, Richard Benyon MP today, and ensure that Defra does not reduce the number of Marine Conservation Zones going forward for consultation in 2012 now.
We would be very grateful if you could email the Minister using our suggested letter, highlighting your concerns. You can also sign our Petition Fish campaign and join our Save our Seas online community. Ask your friends, family and everyone you know to do the same. Keep up-to-date with our campaign using Bernard the Gurnard's social media sites.
What are Living Seas?
Living Seas: A rocky reef bursting with brightly coloured fish, corals and sponges? Living Seas: A boat trip in the company of leaping dolphins and playful seals? Living Seas: Fishermen hauling nets that are brimful of big, tasty fish?
Living Seas are all these things and more.
But the UK’s seas are not Living Seas. Decades of neglect have left them damaged and degraded, a shadow of their former diversity and abundance. We urgently need your help to bring them back to life. The next five years are critical. It is literally ‘make or break’ time. With new laws and Government commitments in the offing, we have a ‘once in a lifetime’ opportunity. If we make the very best of that opportunity, pushing every step of the way, our seas will turn the corner and start to recover their health. If we do not, they will continue on their downward spiral. This is what Petition Fish 2 is all about.