Lyme Bay: the dredging goes on.

[Frankie Price]

[quote] It's business as usual as the Government ignores scientific advice and flouts European law [quote]

English Nature has asked the Government for a sixty square mile protected area in Lyme Bay to stop the destruction of the fragile marine environment by the scallop trawlers.
Up until a year ago the trawling was self policed by the fishermen and confined to two small areas.
This agreement has now collapsed resulting in more dredgers moving into the area which is causing devastation to the sea bed.
It seems that the Government has given in to the fishermen's lobby without considering other local people's views.
The main problem is the method employed by the scallop dredgers which smashes up the sea bed to extract the catch.
Lyme Bay is an exceptional habitat for Pink Sea Fan, Dead Man's Fingers and Sunset Coral.
If this continues then Lyme Bay can be written off for diving and fishing.
The main damage is being done in the 15 - 30m depth range.

So what can we do?
We can stop eating scallops or only eat the ones that have been hand caughy by divers.
We can ask supermarkets and fish mongers for proof of how their scallops were caught.
Support responsible supemarkets such as Waitrose who won't sell dredged scallops.
We can write to our MPs to bring this issue to their attention.

As divers we are in some ways the custodians of the sea bed for the benefit of future visitors.
The Marine Bill is supposed to address all of these issues but seems to be falling victim of a slipping time table. Possibly due to a few vested financial interests taking priority over the environmental requirements.
Lyme Bay has been put forward as a special area for conservation (SAQ) under the European Habitats directive so it should have the same level of protection as a designated site until a final decision is taken.
It seems that the fishermen are flouting the law in order to make a fast buck before the site is declared out of bounds for them.

[Adrian Kelland]

Originally Posted by Frankie Price

English Nature has asked the Government for a sixty square mile protected area in Lyme Bay to stop the destruction of the fragile marine environment by the scallop trawlers.
Up until a year ago the trawling was self policed by the fishermen and confined to two small areas.
This agreement has now collapsed resulting in more dredgers moving into the area which is causing devastation to the sea bed.
It seems that the Government has given in to the fishermen's lobby without considering other local people's views.
The main problem is the method employed by the scallop dredgers which smashes up the sea bed to extract the catch.
Lyme Bay is an exceptional habitat for Pink Sea Fan, Dead Man's Fingers and Sunset Coral.
If this continues then Lyme Bay can be written off for diving and fishing.
The main damage is being done in the 15 - 30m depth range.

So what can we do?
We can stop eating scallops or only eat the ones that have been hand caughy by divers.
We can ask supermarkets and fish mongers for proof of how their scallops were caught.
Support responsible supemarkets such as Waitrose who won't sell dredged scallops.
We can write to our MPs to bring this issue to their attention.

As divers we are in some ways the custodians of the sea bed for the benefit of future visitors.
The Marine Bill is supposed to address all of these issues but seems to be falling victim of a slipping time table. Possibly due to a few vested financial interests taking priority over the environmental requirements.
Lyme Bay has been put forward as a special area for conservation (SAQ) under the European Habitats directive so it should have the same level of protection as a designated site until a final decision is taken.
It seems that the fishermen are flouting the law in order to make a fast buck before the site is declared out of bounds for them.

Sadly my local MP is Ben Bradshaw, the weakling fisheries minister responsible for doing nothing.

[Lou]

Originally Posted by Frankie Price

It seems that the fishermen are flouting the law in order to make a fast buck before the site is declared out of bounds for them.

Hands up who is suprised by this? No,? Didn't think that there would be many takers.

I think this could be adopted as the slogan for the British Fishing Industry Assocation...

[Scrumbag]

Could I also suggest writing to your councillors and MEP's? If the MP won't do anything, under cut and over ride them.

On a more positive note: Get to know the local fishermen and actively buy produce from the responsible ones. I'm not sure what that is on the footing of coercion, bribery, blackmail or just generally buttering up but it's worth a shot.

Mike

[Paul_K]

Originally Posted by Scrumbag

Could I also suggest writing to your councillors and MEP's? If the MP won't do anything, under cut and over ride them.

On a more positive note: Get to know the local fishermen and actively buy produce from the responsible ones. I'm not sure what that is on the footing of coercion, bribery, blackmail or just generally buttering up but it's worth a shot.

Mike

The problem I see is that most of the damage is'nt being caused by the local fishermen. The Wasons from my home town of Lyme Regis have been going out a bit further then the so called protected zone. No, when I go diving out of Lyme Regis or Westbay all I see are Brixham or other non-local dredgers ploughing their way around my favourite dive sites

It's got to stop soon though. I dived just off Sawtooth ledges in September and had a great dive, loads of flora and fauna to be seen. A week later and we dropped down on the same GPS co-ordinates to find that all too familiar ploughed field look! We spent around 30 minutes on the bottom and didn't see a thing

Cheers, Paul K