The NFFO has taken measures to establish a North Sea Marine Conservation Zone project which is expected to be soon underway to cover the North Sea out to the UK’s Exclusive Economic Zone from the Scottish border to north of the Thames. Three further regional projects in the North West, South West and South East will complete the network for England. Separate initiatives will take place for Welsh and Scottish waters.
Now the question arises that why there should be such a rush when the marine environment it is so poorly understood and coastal livelihood needs could stand to be neglected within the decision making process. This answer lies in the present political climate where high minded environmental concern, cultivated by sweeping statements about marine environmental decline, has translated into the apparent quick-fix cure we see in Marine Protected Area (MPA) policy.
It is expected that the solution rests on a simple doctrine – we don’t need to understand the complex interrelationships within the marine environment and between it and people’s livelihoods in order to act, and we must act in urgency before it is too late. The status of the UK’s marine environment and reality that the fishing fleet has reduced substantially in the last 10 – 15 years with a parallel reduction in pressure upon the marine environment appears to count for little in this frenetic debate.
It is fact that the UK fishing industry has experienced many occasions when quick-fix solutions have faltered on a misconception of the marine environmental system or the realities of delivering policy on the ground. Another doubt is the protection of marine lives. The NFFO sees this in terms of protecting and supporting sustainable marine livelihoods and coastal communities.
