Fifteen new areas to give protection to UK seas
20 August 2010
Fifteen new Marine Protected Areas were created today, designed to protect important habitats and species. The UK Government has submitted the sites to the European Commission to be included within the European ‘Natura 2000’ network of protected areas.
The sites, which were selected on the basis of the best scientific evidence available, have undergone a rigorous and transparent assessment and will bring protection to habitats including reefs, sea caves and sandbanks, where marine life thrives. Sandbanks act as nursery grounds for many commercial fish species such as plaice and sole whilst also supporting sand eel communities that are a food source for seabirds and mammals such as seals. Reefs support a colourful array of sponges, sea squirts and corals that provide shelter for crabs, lobsters and fish such as the multi-coloured cuckoo wrasse. Birds will also benefit, with sites selected for the conservation of the red-throated diver and common scoter.
Marine Environment Minister, Richard Benyon, said: “Our seas are home to some of the most diverse species and habitats in the world and they need just as much protection as our land. Today is a major step forward in helping us to achieve clean, healthy and vibrant seas where marine life can thrive. Working hand-in-hand with the creation of Marine Conservation Zones, created under the groundbreaking Marine and Coastal Access Act, these sites will make a major contribution to the delivery of an ecological network of Marine Protected Areas by 2012.”
Two consultations also start today for sites at the Dogger Bank in the North Sea and proposed new boundaries for Lune Deep and Prawle Point to Start Point. The Dogger Bank is not only an important sandbank habitat but is also a key area for the UK in meeting its renewable energy target by 2020. The identification of the Dogger Bank as both a conservation site and an area for windfarm development illustrates the compatibility that can exist between energy development and nature conservation. The consultations will close on 12th November 2010.
Chris McMullon, marine and coastal seas specialist for Natural England, says: “We are pleased to have two of the new sites in the South East area. Margate and Long Sands SAC is an important area of sandbanks which are complex and important marine habitats. And the Outer Thames Estuary SPA is being designated because it is a major UK site for overwintering Red-throated Divers Gavia stellata. These are important sites and we welcome the contribution which they make to the environmental diversity in this part of our seas.”
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For further information, please contact John Rennie from Natural England’s Regional Communications Team on 0300 060 2616, email: john.rennie@naturalengland.org.uk
Notes to editors:
The new candidate Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) are: Inner Dowsing, Race Bank and North Ridge; North Norfolk Sandbanks and Saturn Reef; Haisborough, Hammond and Winterton; Margate and Long Sands; Bassurelle Sandbank; Lyme Bay and Torbay; Prawle Point to Plymouth Sound and Eddystone; Lizard Point; Land’s End and Cape Bank; Shell Flat; Red Bay; North-West Rockall Bank and Wyville Thomson Ridge.
The new Special Protection Areas (for birds) are: Outer Thames Estuary and Liverpool Bay/Bae Lerpwl (agreed with the Welsh Assembly Government).
The two possible SACs subject to another consultation by Natural England are: Lune Deep and Prawle Point to Start Point.
The possible SAC being consulted upon by JNCC is Dogger Bank
Further information on the Natura 2000 sites, new sites and the consultations may be found on: www.naturalengland.org.uk/ourwork/marine/sacconsultation/default.aspx
; www.jncc.gov.uk/marineconsult ; www.doeni.gov.uk and www.ni-environment.gov.uk Marine Conservation Zones (MCZs): MCZs are a new national designation as proposed in the new Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009. MCZs will be designated to protect nationally important and representative habitats and species and, together with the Natura 2000 sites, Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs), Ramsar sites and new national MPAs in Scotland and Northern Ireland will create our MPA network. MCZs in English inshore and English, Welsh and Northern Irish offshore waters will be identified through a different process to the Natura 2000 sites. Recommendations are proposed to be made to Government by October 2011.
Two sites are important to Natural England in the South East:
Margate and Long Sands SAC: Sandbanks (Annex 1 habitat) are complex habitats with a variation in density and importance of associated species (dune crests with low species richness, slopes and troughs with high species richness). They are rich food sources with a significant amount of life on an ecosystem scale. About 40% of Atlantic regions sandbanks occur in UK waters. Eroded sediments provide different characteristics for the sandbank habitats. These are special habitats in the European context, not currently represented in Natura 2000 series, and the UK, being an island, demonstrates the best examples of these habitats. This is an area of tidally-influenced, estuary mouth sandbanks of the outer Thames, with very mobile sandy sediments across the site, but containing a diversity not found further north in the North Sea, where a strong functioning ecosystem and services, (e.g. dissipating wave action etc) are important.
Outer Thames Estuary SPA: This is a major site which is designated for its population of overwintering Red-throated Divers Gavia stellata (Annex 2 species). These mainly occupy waters between 0-20m deep (less frequently in depths of around 30m) and in areas with extensive sandy or muddy substrate. Their diet is principally small fish of a variety of species (particularly of the cod family, herring and sprats) and there is evidence to suggest that in some areas, the higher numbers of birds are associated with shoals of sprats. The GB wintering population is aggregated in substantial numbers in several areas, from the Moray Firth in the north and further south along the coast of Lincolnshire and NE Norfolk to Kent where the main part of this population occurs in the Outer Thames Estuary. This wintering population is largely made up of birds which breed in the UK, Greenland, Iceland and Scandinavia. Wintering birds associate with sandbanks for feeding; their diet is principally small fish (cod family, herring, sprats).
