a) The UK is continuing to implement the EU Habitats and Birds Directives in part through the identification of further protected areas in the marine environment. Additional Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) are principally being identified away from the coast in both territorial and offshore waters. Coastal Special Protection Areas (SPAs) for birds are being extended, where appropriate, into the marine environment and fully marine sites are being selected for aggregations of birds where they may be feeding, moulting or resting etc. The UK is a contracting party to the Oslo Paris (OSPAR) Convention for the North East Atlantic which in 2003 adopted a recommendation to develop a network of protected areas throughout the OSPAR maritime area. Work on implementing this is at a very early stage.
b) Management of Natura 2000 sites (SACs & SPAs) is still being established in some sites but methods continue to be refined. The UK is contributing to an EU expert group which is developing generic guidance for the management of marine Natura 2000 sites. Sites of Special Scientific Interest, the national designation of protected sites, extend generally to the low mean water mark, and include coastal habitats. Management agreements are already in place on many of these sites, where appropriate, and management options for the others are being prepared.
c) A collaborative project has commenced to build upon existing seabed mapping and provide publicly accessible integrated marine mapping. The project will develop a set of geological/physical maps of the seabed, coastal and water column features for all UK waters. Marine Landscapes will assist policy officials, developers and conservationists alike, to make better informed judgements about the marine environment.
d) Implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive will improve the mechanisms available to protect water quality based on measures which include biodiversity assessment.
e) Protection of spawning and nursery areas in the marine and freshwater environment is well established in UK legislation, and a number of examples currently exist, mainly in inshore waters. Byelaws implemented by the UK Sea Fisheries Committees within 6 m of the coast restrict a range of fishing activities in areas regionally important for shellfish overwintering (Start Bay, Devon, and NE coast of England), and for juvenile flatfish (Sussex coast).
The Coastal Fisheries of England and Wales. http://www.cefas.co.uk/publications/techrep/tech116.pdf
A Review of Closed Areas in the UK EEZ http://www.cefas.co.uk/publications/techrep/tech106.pdf
g) Fisheries and their impacts on the environment are managed through the CFP principally by implementing catch quota management measures, by setting agreed annual Total Allowable Catches for particular stocks of commercial fish and by means of various technical conservation measures, including minimum landing sizes, fishing gear restrictions and closed areas. In offshore waters, the CFP is regulated through EC Regulations; inshore, it is regulated primarily through national legislation. It is well known that there are adverse effects of fishing activity on target stocks, and indirect effects on habitats, species caught as bycatch, and food webs. Examples include seabed damage caused by deep sea bottom trawling and albatrosses and petrels drowned as a result of long-line fishing. The UK and the UK Overseas Territories are working to improve regulation and enforcement to combat illegal unreported and unregulated fishing in some of the Overseas Territories economic zones where problems have occurred.
|
