Photo by Ed Wingate
The Marine Management Organisation (MMO) has launched Your Coast – Explore, Enjoy, Protect, a campaign inviting coastal communities to help shape how recreational activities are managed in England’s marine protected areas (MPAs). The first phase is a call for evidence, which opened on 30 September and closes on 25 November.
What the MMO wants to know
The MMO has prepared five draft impacts evidence documents summarising what is currently known about how recreational activity and anchoring affect protected features. These cover benthic sediments and associated species, birds, seals and otters, reefs, and a group of sensitive habitats and species including seagrass beds, maerl beds, seahorses and stalked jellyfish. The activities in scope include anchoring, diving and snorkelling, motorboats, jet skis, paddle sports, sailing, wildlife-watching boat tours and wind sports such as kitesurfing and wing foiling.
The call is aimed at partners, conservation groups, academics and recreational water users, who are invited to review the evidence and submit further data, observations or studies through an online survey. The MMO is also making a special appeal to divers and underwater photographers for images of protected seabed habitats and wildlife, which can be sent to conservation@marinemanagement.org.uk. Contributors are asked to follow the Marine and Coastal Wildlife Code to avoid disturbing wildlife.
Jessica Churchill-Bissett, the MMO’s Head of Marine Conservation (Wildlife), said: “Your Coast – Explore, Enjoy, Protect is our invitation to the people who know these waters best, the divers, boaters, kayakers and coastal communities who explore and enjoy them every day. We need your help to protect them for future generations.” She added: “Every piece of evidence, every photograph and every local insight makes a difference and will be used to inform our approach going forward.”
Filling a regulatory gap
Marine non-licensable activities (mNLA) are activities that do not need a marine licence but may still affect protected habitats and species. The MMO is responsible for managing them within 0 to 12 nautical miles of the English coast where they hinder an MPA’s conservation objectives. Fishing is managed separately and is excluded, as are land-based activities such as dog walking, coasteering and bait collection. The call for evidence forms part of the MMO’s wider programme to assess, and if necessary manage, recreational activity and anchoring across all inshore English MPAs.
According to the MMO’s guidance, management can range from education and voluntary agreements to statutory byelaws. The first site assessed was Studland Bay Marine Conservation Zone in Dorset, one of England’s busiest inshore MPAs, where a voluntary no-anchor zone was introduced in December 2021 to protect seagrass. Six further MPAs were then prioritised for detailed assessment: Cromer Shoal Chalk Beds, the Fal and Helford, the Isles of Scilly, Plymouth Sound and Estuaries, the Solent and The Wash and North Norfolk Coast.