Living Seas

Living Seas. What picture does the phrase conjure up?

Tompot Blenny Photo by Paul Naylor

A rocky reef bursting with brightly coloured fish, corals and sponges? A boat trip in the company of leaping dolphins and playful seals? Fishermen hauling nets that are brimful of big, tasty fish? Living Seas are all these things and more.

But Britain’s seas are not Living Seas. Decades of neglect have left them damaged and degraded, a shadow of their former diversity and abundance.

We urgently need your help to bring them back to life. The next five years are critical. It is literally ‘make or break’ time. With new laws and Government commitments in the offing, we have a ‘once in a lifetime’ opportunity. Please sign up to our Petition Fish today and help protect our valuable marine environment.

If we make the very best of that opportunity, pushing every step of the way, our seas will turn the corner and start to recover their health. If we do not, they will continue on their downward spiral.

One action that can be taken to assist us in our ambition is to sign up to our Petition Fish which demands that we make the most of our legislation to create appropriate and well thought out Marine Protected Areas.

Jewel Anenome Photo by Paul Naylor

Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are an area that the Wildlife Trusts have been campaigning on across Britain. We have been succesful in Wales in 2009 with the Marine and Coastal Access Act. Now we need to see that this Act is implemented.

Wales has a very special coastline and our islands of Skomer and Skokholm are within a designated MPA. You can download the Wildlife Trusts vision of living seas to find out how we want all the seas round the British Isles to benefit.

MPAs are sites in which human activities are restricted to varying degrees. They are a tried and tested means of safeguarding important habitats and wildlife. MPAs protect the wildlife within their boundaries and allow nature to recover and thrive.

In many cases, MPAs have an influence beyond their boundaries too, as burgeoning wildlife populations spill out into the surrounding sea. Carefully designed and well managed networks of MPAs bring even greater benefits.

Skokholm Cliffs Photo by L Maiden

Networks can boost the health of the marine environment as a whole, helping it recover from past impacts and enabling it to sustain current pressures.

To achieve this, MPA networks must include not just sites that protect rare and threatened wildlife, but also those that protect examples of the whole range of ‘typical’ habitats and wildlife found in healthy seas.

MPAs are the heart of marine nature conservation and essential for the sustainable management of the Britain’s marine area. That is why The Wildlife Trusts regard MPAs as the bedrock of Living Seas and are campaigning for a well managed network of MPAs by the end of 2012.

For the latest on what is happening in Wales you can download the monthly Marine Updates from Wildlife Trusts Wales below: