Give seas a chance!

Our vision for Dorset's marine life

Dorset Wildlife Trust has launched Living Seas, the Wildlife Trusts’ vision for the UK’s marine environment ­ where wildlife thrives from the depths of the ocean to the shallows around the Dorset coast ­ at an event in the House of Commons.

The launch follows the passing, in November, of the Marine and Coastal Access Act (MCAA), for which The Wildlife Trusts and other organisations campaigned for nearly a decade.  The challenge for the next five years is to ensure the Act is effectively implemented ­ that urgent action is taken to turn the UK’s over-fished, over-exploited, and currently under-protected waters back into a thriving marine environment.  The Wildlife Trusts have a clear vision for how this should happen, and a plan for achieving it within 20 years, a single generation.

Dorset leads the way

The Wildlife Trusts are working across the UK at a local level to understand, protect and raise awareness of our marine wildlife and habitats, including seagrass meadows, dolphins and the fish we eat.  Dorset Wildlife Trust’s Seasearch volunteer divers and the ground-breaking DORIS marine mapping programme are currently leading the way in knowledge of the wildlife of our coasts.  The reefs around Portland and between Ringstead and Studland have been singled out for European recognition, while at Studland Bay, with the support of many residents and the boating community, a new voluntary no-anchor zone is in place on the seagrass meadows just offshore, to allow for further study of this habitat, which is home to a colony of breeding seahorses.  

Signs of recovery

In a few places, we are even starting to see possible signs of our seas recovering.  There are early signs of recovery in the fragile ecosystem of the Lyme Bay reefs, where a campaign, spearheaded by Dorset and Devon Wildlife Trusts, achieved a ban on scallop dredging in 2008.

Simon Cripps, Chief Executive of Dorset Wildlife Trust, said: “Dorset Wildlife Trust wants to see and contribute to a return to a healthy marine environment, which is rich in species and a wide range of habitats, and which protects and provides sustainable livelihoods for those that rely on the resources or services it can provide.”

 -ENDS-

• Picture caption: 
Simon Cripps, Chief Executive of Dorset Wildlife Trust, is pictured with Annette Brooke, MP for Mid Dorset and North Poole, at the launch of the Living Seas vision on Tuesday 19 January at the House of Commons.

Notes to Editor

The Living Seas vision report is available to download from The Wildlife Trusts’ website www.wildlifetrusts.org
For further information please contact Simon Cripps or Peter Tinsley at Dorset Wildlife Trust on 01305 264620.