Lyme Bay Reefs devastated.
17/03/2007 00:00:00Lyme Bay facts
- Devon Wildlife Trust has spent almost £0.5M gathering data on this area of sea bed over a period of ten years. Throughout that period DWT has been working closely with scallop fishers seeking a sustainable solution which would enable acceptable levels of fishing to continue whilst protecting this important habitat.
- Video evidence recorded on 16 June 2006 shows clearly that the sea bed inside the voluntary area has been destroyed by dredging.
- According to Government statistics scallop fishing began in earnest in Lyme Bay in 1975. The traditional fisheries in this area are potting and trawling.
- However until 3-4 years ago scallop dredging was a “fill-in” activity – most boats trawled for 9-10 months of the year. The proposed closed area is just one of many areas that support scallop stocks.
- In the last 6 months the number of boats scallop dredging on the reefs has increased from 6-8 to 16-18 at times. The main reason for this is that the fuel price has increased moving people from trawling for fish to dredging for scallops.
- Scallop fishermen have reported gross earnings of £3500 a day – this has increased dredging activity.
- Many other industries depend on the reefs including potting, netting, angling and diving. These will benefit from the closure and strongly support this proposal.
Click here to view the video.
Government U-turn on Lyme Bay reefs protection.
Paul Gompertz, director of DWT said, 'What is happening here is the sickness of the planet being acted out before our very eyes. All around the British coast and across the globe marine habitats have been destroyed. We are making deserts of the seabed as surely as intensive logging and agriculture have made deserts on land'.
DWT and English Nature are calling for an enforced no-dredging area covering 60sq. miles – less than 10% of Lyme Bay. This would enable habitats to regenerate. After extensive surveying and consultation with fishermen over ten years, DWT has established that this area represents the minimum effective area to promote recovery. Paul Gompertz continued, “This is a national test case for the marine environment. What is needed is for the government to take decisive and urgent action and create an enforceable, no-dredge zone. If we cannot save Lyme Bay, where we have clear evidence for the destruction already caused, then there is no hope for the remainder of the offshore seabed. This is Ben Bradshaw’s ‘Blue Planet moment’ – an opportunity to show that the government takes the environment and the need to maintain the planet’s life support systems seriously”.
The United Nations report ‘Living Beyond Our Means’ calls for additional protected areas, particularly in marine systems, and states that “everyone in the world depends on nature and ecosystem services to provide the conditions for a decent, healthy, and secure life. Human activities have taken the planet to the edge of a massive wave of species extinctions…threatening our own well-being”.
Courtesy of the Devon Wildlife Trust.
