Conservation Officer Report - February

[Paul D]

Posted on old forum by Charlie Annear

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Hi All

My reports are generally reproduced within the
minutes of the club monthly meetings, but I thought it might be an idea for
them to have a thread of their own, to increase visibility.

So, here's the February report. It's pretty long
this month- a lot has happened!

Conservation
Officer Report- February 2013

Big
news, European Fisheries reform: 

-502 vs 137 MEPS voted for ambitious reform of the
CFP, including a ban on discards and limits based on MSY (Maximum Sustainable
yield) with the aim of the restoration of fish stocks to be achieved by 2020. A
last minute attempt by the EPP (European People’s Party) to weaken it were
rejected 418-220. But, of course, this isn’t a done-deal. This will now need to
be debated by the Parliament and the Council before the European Commission has
a new stance. The Council’s position will be negotiated at the end of February
with the debate to follow soon after.

-MCS Summary

-BBC Story


PDSAA
(Poole and District Sea Angling Association): 

(I had to make my apologies to this meeting due to
a family bereavement)


Angling
Trust:

(Reproduced from AT Bulletin)

21st January 2013 - For Immediate Release 

Public Consultation On Marine Conservation Zones
- Act Now To Make Your Views Known

As you may be aware, the Government is currently
carrying out a public consultation on the 31 Marine Conservation Zones
that are to be considered for designation in 2013.

These sites have been chosen by Defra on the basis
of the benefits they offer, how much these benefits outweigh the costs of
designating the sites and the evidence supporting the reason for protecting
them.

The consultation will close at Midnight on March
31st 2013. This is YOUR opportunity to comment on the proposed sites and
highlight your support, or concerns, over the areas under consideration.

The consultation documents can be found HERE along
with all the supporting information (there is a lot).

The Angling Trust will be responding to the consultation
but we would encourage you to send us details of your response to the
consultation so that we can include the views of our members in our response.
Amongst other points the Angling Trust's response will include:

1. Disappointment that only 31 of the 127
recommended sites have been proposed for the first tranche.

2. Concerns about displacement of commercial
fishing effort

3. Concerns regarding the lack of interim
protection for remaining sites that might be reconsidered for protecting in
future tranches.

4. Concerns about the socio-economic impact on
coastal communities of any restrictive measures on recreational angling
activity.

5. Highlighting that the value of recreational sea
angling (RSA)has only been included for a handful of the proposed sites,
despite there being substantial RSA activity in most of the proposed inshore
sites. This short-coming needs to be corrected (especially as RSA forms the
large percentage of total cost where it has been included).

6. The decision not to include management measures
in the current consultation makes it very difficult for respondents to know
what the outcome of designation of the 31 recommended sites will be on
recreational sea angling.

7. A re-emphasis of our long-standing position
that there is no need for restriction of RSA activities in the proposed sites.

The sites considered good for designation in 2013
are:

Within
the Irish Sea Conservation Zone
regional project (North West)

Cumbria Coast

Fylde Offshore

Hilbre Island Group

North of Celtic Deep

Within
the Net Gain regional project area (North East)

Aln Estuary

Swallow Sands

Rock Unique

Within
the Finding Sanctuary regional project area (South West)

East of Haig Fras

Southwest Deeps (West)

The Canyons

Lundy

Padstow Bay and Surrounds

Isles of Scilly

The Manacles

Upper Fowey and Pont Pill

Whitsand and Looe Bay

Tamar Estuary

Skerries Bank and Surround

Torbay

Chesil Beach and Stennis Ledges

South of Dorset

Poole Rocks

Within
the Balanced Seas regional project area (South East)

Stour and Orwell Estuaries

Blackwater, Crouch, Roach and Colne Estuaries

Medway Estuary

Thanet Coast

Folkestone Pomerania

Hythe Bay

Beachy Head West

Kingmere

Pagham Harbour

No Reference Areas (where recreational angling
would definitely have been prohibited) have been put forward. However, the
possible management measures of the recommended sites have not been made
public. Therefore, while we expect the impact on recreational sea angling to be
extremely small, any such impacts will not be known until after the public
consultation closes.

A response form is included as annex H to the
consultation document. Responses should be sent by post to: MCZ team, c/o Post
Room, Nobel House, 17 Smith Square, London. SW1P 3JR

Or by email to: mcz@defra.gsi.gov.uk

Please remember to copy your response to us so
that we can reflect the concerns of our members in our response.

Future Designation of More MCZs

Annexes A.2 - A.5 list the conservation zone
sites requiring further consideration for possible designation in future
tranches. We urge you to include comments on any of these sites in any response
you make to the consultation.

In selecting sites for designation in any future
tranches Defra will consider:

•The responses to this consultation including any
suggestions for alternative sites for MCZs 

•The contribution needed to achieve the UK's
obligation towards establishing ecologically coherent networks taking account
of sites designated by neighbouring UK administrations and neighbouring EU
member states 

•The review of Reference Areas 

•Costs of sites to both industry and the public
sector. 

Sites not suitable for designation:

Where a site's conservation advantages
were considered not to outweigh the socio-economic costs then the MCZ was not
considered appropriate for designation.

Remember, this is your opportunity to make your
views known. We encourage you to do so before March 31st.


MCS
(Marine Conservation Society): 

-Mackerel has been downgraded from list of
sustainable fisheries: Story

and Listing

-BBC: Article

-The Guardian: Article

-The Independent: Article

-Hugh Fearnly-Whittingstall/Fishfight: Response

-Microplastics. ‘Lush’ have now stopped using
microplastics in their products.

-Microplastics. Wider appreciation of damage cause
by balloon and Chinese lantern releases are starting to result in releases
being cancelled: Article

-MCS will be protesting in Westminster re MCZ’s on
25th February: March

-Help to protect Manta Rays by signing this
petition: Sign


DEFRA: 

-Nothing to report


MRC
(Marine Reserves Coalition):

Protected areas in other regions. This is
important as demonstrates desire to create protected areas internationally, not
just in the UK. Follows successes in protected areas in countries such as USA,
Australia and Ireland for example. This will be important in demonstrating
whether these areas work. There is no reason that they shouldn’t (other than if
they are too small and too isolated), just as protected areas on dry land have
become so important since WW2. What would our native UK wildlife be like today
if we hadn’t had the various forms of protection in place since the 1950’s,
such as protected areas (Wildlife Reserves, SSSI’s, Country Parks, National
Parks and Forestry Commission to name a few) and controls on pollution and
chemical use.:


-South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands: MPA

-Chile protects all seamounts from bottom
trawling: Protected

-Portugal nominates seamounts for protected areas: Nominated

-Phillipines has 34 MPA’s. We are supposed to be a
forward thinking ‘green’ country and we are only proposing 27.


Dorset
Wildlife Trust:

- A quarter of a million people called for greater
protection for the UK’s seas and coastline. 250,000 signatures on the Wildlife
Trusts’ Petition Fish were presented to Natural Environment Minister Richard
Benyon at a Parliamentary reception at the House of Commons.

-A number of Auks (Guillemots, Razorbills etc)
have been washed up on South Coast beaches (both alive and dead) covered in
what has been identified an oil additive used in ships engines. The scale of
the impact of sea birds is unknown, but the quantity of birds which have ended
up on South Coast beaches are likely to be the tip of the iceberg. What is this
substance? Where is it? How long will it have an effect? What impact will it
have on other marine life? Will it enter the food chain, i.e. will it effect
fish? BBC News story


Maria
Damanaki (EU Commissioner responsible for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries):

-Its a historic day: for 1st time elected
representatives of #EUcitizens, shape future #fisheries policy and bring about
ambitious #cfpreform

-I am pleased with @Europarl_EN support of
#CFPreform choosing #sustainability #MSY & #discardban with clear dates to
end wasteful practices

-I congratulate @EUParl on #CFPreform vote success
and I look forward to their work with @EUCouncilPress to ensure the adoption of
#CFPreform


Pew
Charitable Trusts:

-Decline of Bluefin Tuna Down 96%


BBC
News: 

-Sale of Bluefin Tuna reaches record highs Profiteering

-Interesting photos following a study of
Hammerhead sharks. (Sharks overseas are part of the international ocean
food-web. If a top predator is removed it can have a huge effect, i.e.
explosion in populations of Humboldt squid and jellyfish): Photos

-The unquantified threat of microplastics: The unknown effects

-Another reason why species must be protected; we
don’t know what we can learn from them. Shark immune systems may hold clues to
cures for cancer.Research


The
Guardian:

-Associated to the microplastics issue is the
continued use of plastic bags:

Broken pledge

-Microplastics in fish in the Channel: Local waters


The
Scotsman:

-Microplastics in the Firth of Clyde: Research. This could be the
same in our waters if steps aren’t taken to reduce use of microplastics, if it
hasn’t already reached this level.



Midway:

-This film shows the impact that plastics are
having on marine ecosystems. It is entirely likely that fish species are also
suffering in the same way: Full bellies but starving 

If the birds are like this, the fish probably are
too


Navitus
Bay:

-Latest round of Public Consultation is underway: Windfarm


B.A.S.S:

-Following a campaign by BASS and other
environmental groups, I emailed local MEP’s regarding the Wednesday 6th
February vote on European Fisheries Policy:

“This
message was also sent to: Sir Graham Watson MEP, Trevor Colman MEP, William
(The Earl of) Dartmouth MEP. Sunday 3 February 2013

“Dear Trevor Colman, Sir Graham Watson, Ashley Fox and William (The Earl of)
Dartmouth,

On February 6th you will all have the opportunity to vote on fundamental
reforms to the Common Fisheries Policy that will be a major step in restoring
European fish stocks, ensuring a sustainable source of healthy food for
generations to come, a future for fishermen who rely on robust stocks and a
properly functioning marine environment, and a healthy recreational sea angling
sector important to the quality of life of millions of Europeans.

Please ignore the appeals of those who would gamble the prospect of short term
gains for the few now against the long term needs of so many both now and
across future generations. 

Yours sincerely,

Charlie Annear”

Response:

“Thank you for your email on reform to the Common
Fisheries Policy (CFP).

Please be assured that I fully support ambitious
and radical reform to ensure both a sustainable ocean and a sustainable
industry. I completely agree that the current CFP has been a failure. 

Two thirds of EU commercial fisheries are
over-fished. Discards play a big part in this over-exploitation. The
Conservative delegation voted in favour of an end to discards and an
implementation of the discard ban. We must now ensure that this discard ban is
workable and does not end up with us moving from discarding at sea simply to
discarding on land. Instead of finding new markets for the extra 1.8 million
tonnes of unwanted catches, we should firstly aim to use more selective gears
to keep these fish in the ocean. The discard ban should therefore go hand in
hand with a tougher approach on selective gear to ensure that the unwanted
catches are not caught in the first place. 

I am also a supporter of maintaining stocks above
maximum sustainable yield (MSY) by 2020. This will ensure that all fish stocks
will have recovered to sustainable levels and fishermen will have had the
necessary time to adjust to the new approach. We must work with scientists and
stakeholders to come up with workable legislation that conserves fish stocks
for future generations and which provides for a sustainable fishing sector. MSY
will be an important factor in this scenario.

I hope to see an end to the micro-management from
Brussels that has bedevilled the sector for decades. We have a real opportunity
here to ensure that we get the radical reform that we have campaigned so hard
for. 

Yours sincerely,

Ashley Fox”

END OF REPORT