Close
Dr Jean-Luc Solandt
Senior Project Manager
After the UK left the European Union, it established the Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) to hold governments to account over their commitment to restore UK waters to health. The OEP has made a statement that criticizes delays by the government in meeting pre agreed commitments relating to marine protection.
The government is already behind schedule in meeting these commitments. Plans have been in place for some time for a series of new bylaws that would bring additional protection to marine protected areas (MPAs) that are offshore. With consultations carried out and stakeholders’ concerns addressed, they now sit with ministers awaiting sign off. But the process has come to a halt.
These measures would introduce fisheries restrictions for over 10,000 sq km of offshore MPAs and outlaw damaging practices such as bottom trawling. However, they are late in receiving final approval from the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. The legislation is vital for the UK’s seas and our beleaguered fish, shark, whale and seabird populations. Under the existing Environment Act, we are committed to protecting these areas.
In 2021, the then government asked the Marine Management Organisation (MMO) to deal with the UK’s offshore MPAs. Since the UK no longer had to answer to Brussels, it no longer needed to negotiate ‘appropriate’ protection levels for these sites with groups representing the interests of large trawlers from overseas fleets. To apply measures for management, we simply had to listen to our own world leading scientific advice and more balanced fishing interest groups.
The process led by the MMO successfully accomplished two phases of protection measures, in 2022 and 2024 for 17 offshore MPAs. The MMO has made proposals and received consultation responses for the final and most important tranche of sites: In this group, 41 MPAs will be freed from bottom trawling in part or all of their area.
There was a commitment to introduce trawling bans in our MPAs by the end of 2024. So, why has the process stalled? The answer is that large scale European and British fishing fleets have pressured the EU to use the issue of fishing access to the UK’s MPAs to block the development of trading agreements in other areas of our relationship. If this continues, fishing will, in effect, stop trade. It will lead to delays in mutually supportive defence arrangements. It will stop us having a unified response to trade tariff threats.
As things stand, the large-scale fishing interests of a small number of trawl boats are bullying their way around reasonable use of the sea by blocking laws that should have been honoured years ago. It is a scandalous detrimental situation for UK and European citizens. The UK government must honour its commitments now and bring full protection to our territorial waters and the abundant life they support.
