A New Marine SPA in Sussex

Barry Yates
, 20 December 2017
A New Marine SPA in Sussex

There has been a marine extension to the Dungeness, Romney Marsh and Rye Bay Special Protection Area (SPA), so that it now covers 424 square kilometres to include the feeding areas of seabirds nesting within the SPA - Sandwich, Common and Little Terns (above) all eat small fish.

Sandwich Tern pair displaying with a large Sandeel

This site is classified according to a Directive which provides a framework for the conservation and management of, and human interactions with, wild birds in Europe. SPAs are classified under the Birds Directive (EC Directive on the conservation of wild birds [79/409/EEC]). Classifying this new marine site represents a significant contribution to the UK Government’s commitment of creating a blue belt of marine protected areas in order to ensure that we protect and manage our seas sustainably now and in the future.

More detail and the map can be found at:

https://consult.defra.gov.uk/natural-england-marine/dungeness-consultation/

At Rye Harbour we have in recent years been the custodian of most of the breeding terns within the SPA. The enormous pressure on the nesting Sandwich, Common and Little Terns comes from:

  1. Badgers and Foxes, by predation.
  2. People and dogs, by disturbance.
  3. Lack of suitable fish close to the nesting colonies at the right time.

The first two pressures have been reduced at Rye Harbour by building islands and fences to create safer nesting sites, but we cannot influence the third factor of food availability.

Here is the history of nesting terns in the SPA...

Sandwich Tern above and Common Tern below (pairs with years along the bottom)

Little Tern pairs below (pairs, starting in 1936)

Fish populations have and are being affected by:

  1. intensive fishing with bigger and more powerful boats that dredge much of the seabed,
  2. enrichment of the sea by fertiliser run off and sewage
  3. and now warming of the sea.

We have only recently started to monitor the small fish in the sea and in some years it’s been difficult for us to catch many along the shore. A hundred years ago there was a flourishing fishery along the shore using static nets called Keddle Nets, just look at the fish in this old postcard…

We imagine that then, in most years, there would have been plenty of small fish in the sea to feed hungry seabird chicks. But today, it’s only about one in five years that the terns can find enough of the right fish for their chicks to grow up quickly and strong.

The terns can live a long time with the oldest and their UK breeding population being:

Sandwich Tern - 30 years 9 months – 11,000 pairs

Common Tern - 33 years 0 months – 10,000 pairs

Little Tern - 21 years 10 months – 1,900 pairs

But even so, all are Amber listed, because of recent breeding population declines.

It remains to be seen how making this marine SPA helps maintain the populations of breeding seabirds in Dungeness, Romney Marsh and Rye Bay. But don’t forget that they all winter off the west coast of Africa where fish stock have been depleted by foreign factory fish, leaving the wintering terns and the small local fishermen chasing fewer fish.

It needs highlighting here that some of the consultees to the marine SPA extension were concerned about the possible detrimental impact on the local fishing industry, but surely a healthier sea for seabirds is a better sea for harvesting fish for ourselves.

Those of us interested in conserving nesting seabirds in Britain are also concerned with encouraging sustainable fisheries here and in Africa. A start for all of us would be to only buy fish recommended by the Marine Conservation Society at https://www.mcsuk.org/goodfishguide/search

A Common Tern feeding its chick with a small fish

Time Δ Debug Message - Perch Runway 3.2
1783519743.79090 [906] SELECT p.pagePath, pr.routePattern, pr.routeRegExp, p.pageTemplate, pr.routeOrder, s.settingValue AS siteOffline FROM swt_pages_staging p LEFT JOIN swt_page_routes pr ON p.pageID=pr.pageID LEFT JOIN swt_settings s ON s.settingID='siteOffline' UNION SELECT NULL AS pagePath, pr2.routePattern, pr2.routeRegExp, pr2.templatePath AS pageTemplate, pr2.routeOrder, NULL AS siteOffline FROM swt_page_routes pr2 WHERE templateID!=0 ORDER BY routeOrder ASC, pagePath ASC
1783519743.82890.038Matched route: news/[slug:s]
1783519743.8290.0001Server address: 216.73.216.55
1783519743.82910Using master page: /templates/pages/blog/post.php
1783519743.82910Page arguments: 
Array
(
    [0] => /news/a-new-marine-spa-in-sussex
    [s] => a-new-marine-spa-in-sussex
    [1] => a-new-marine-spa-in-sussex
)
1783519743.82930.0002 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1783519743.83040.0011 [86] SELECT DISTINCT settingID, settingValue FROM swt_settings WHERE userID=0
1783519743.83240.0021 [1] SELECT locationID FROM swt_shop_tax_locations WHERE locationIsHome=1 LIMIT 1
1783519743.83310.0006INSERT INTO swt_shop_cart(memberID,locationID,currencyID,cartPricing,cartProperties) VALUES(NULL,'1',47,'standard','[]')
1783519743.83520.0022 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_shop_cart WHERE cartID=22784865
1783519743.83590.0007 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_shop_cart WHERE cartID=22784865
1783519743.83660.0007 [nil] SELECT * FROM swt_shop_sales WHERE saleFrom<='2026-07-08 14:09:00' AND saleTo>'2026-07-08 14:09:00' AND saleActive=1 AND saleDeleted IS NULL ORDER BY saleOrder ASC
1783519743.83820.0015 [1] SELECT SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS DISTINCT tbl.* FROM ( SELECT idx.itemID, main.*, idx2.indexValue as sortval FROM swt_blog_index idx JOIN swt_blog_posts main ON idx.itemID=main.postID AND idx.itemKey='postID' JOIN swt_blog_index idx2 ON idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemKey='postID' AND idx2.indexKey='_id' WHERE 1=1 AND ((idx.indexKey='postSlug' AND idx.indexValue='a-new-marine-spa-in-sussex')) AND idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemKey=idx2.itemKey GROUP BY idx.itemID, idx2.indexValue, postID ) as tbl WHERE (postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-07-08 14:09:00' ) GROUP BY itemID, sortval ORDER BY sortval ASC LIMIT 0, 10
1783519743.84120.0031 [1] SELECT FOUND_ROWS() AS `count`
1783519743.8420.0007 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_posts WHERE postID=1473 AND postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-07-08 14:09:00'
1783519743.84310.0012 [13] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_sections ORDER BY sectionTitle ASC
1783519743.84390.0008 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blogs ORDER BY blogTitle ASC
1783519743.84480.0009 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_categories WHERE catID=70 LIMIT 1
1783519743.84550.0007 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_categories WHERE catID=44 LIMIT 1
1783519743.84610.0006Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1783519743.84630.0002 [162] SELECT catID, catPath FROM swt_categories
1783519743.84730.0009 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_posts WHERE postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-07-08 14:09:00' AND postSlug='a-new-marine-spa-in-sussex'
1783519743.86860.0213Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1783519743.86910.0005 [250] SELECT country, countryID FROM swt_shop_countries WHERE countryActive=1 ORDER BY country ASC
1783519743.87060.0016Using template: /templates/pages/attributes/seo.html
1783519743.8710.0003 [1] SELECT regionID, regionTemplate, regionPage, regionRev AS rev FROM swt_content_regions WHERE regionKey='Banner image' AND (regionPage='/news/post' OR regionPage='*')
1783519743.87190.001 [nil] SELECT * FROM ( SELECT idx.itemID, c.regionID, idx.pageID, c.itemJSON, idx2.indexValue as sortval FROM swt_content_index idx JOIN swt_content_items c ON idx.itemID=c.itemID AND idx.itemRev=c.itemRev AND idx.regionID=c.regionID JOIN swt_content_index idx2 ON idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemRev=idx2.itemRev AND idx2.indexKey='_order' WHERE ((idx.regionID=104 AND idx.itemRev=0)) AND idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemRev=idx2.itemRev ) as tbl GROUP BY itemID, pageID, itemJSON, sortval, regionID ORDER BY sortval ASC
1783519743.87320.0013 [82] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageDepth >=0 AND pageDepth<=2 ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1783519743.87650.0033 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1783519743.87710.0007 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1783519743.87980.0026Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template.html
1783519743.87980.0001 [6] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1783519743.88070.0008 [4] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1783519743.88110.0005 [29] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1783519743.8840.0029 [10] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1783519743.8850.001 [7] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1783519743.88570.0007 [9] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1783519743.8880.0023 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' OR pageSortPath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1783519743.88890.0009 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageHidden=0 AND pageNew=0 AND pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition
1783519743.89140.0025 [1] Using template: /templates/navigation/breadcrumbs.html
1783519743.89190.0005Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1783519743.89210.0003 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_authors WHERE authorID='6' LIMIT 1
1783519743.89290.0008Using template: /templates/blog/author.html
1783519743.89330.0004 [1] SELECT SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS DISTINCT tbl.* FROM ( SELECT idx.itemID, main.*, idx2.indexValue as sortval FROM swt_blog_index idx JOIN swt_blog_posts main ON idx.itemID=main.postID AND idx.itemKey='postID' JOIN swt_blog_index idx2 ON idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemKey='postID' AND idx2.indexKey='_id' WHERE 1=1 AND ((idx.indexKey='postSlug' AND idx.indexValue='a-new-marine-spa-in-sussex')) AND idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemKey=idx2.itemKey GROUP BY idx.itemID, idx2.indexValue, postID ) as tbl WHERE (postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-07-08 14:09:00' ) GROUP BY itemID, sortval ORDER BY sortval ASC LIMIT 0, 1
1783519743.89550.0022 [1] SELECT FOUND_ROWS() AS `count`
1783519743.8960.0005 [1] Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1783519743.8990.003Using template: /templates/blog/comment_form.html
1783519743.89960.0006 [nil] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_comments WHERE 1=1 AND postID=1473 AND commentStatus='LIVE' ORDER BY FIELD(webmentionType, 'like', 'repost', 'comment', NULL) ASC, commentDateTime ASC
1783519743.95180.0522 [0] Using template: /templates/blog/comment.html
1783519743.9520.0003Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1783519743.95220.0002 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_authors WHERE authorID='6' LIMIT 1
1783519743.95290.0007 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/what-we-do' OR pageSortPath='/what-we-do' LIMIT 1
1783519743.95360.0006 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-002' LIMIT 1
1783519743.96240.0088 [7] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageTreePosition LIKE '000-002%' AND pageDepth >=1 AND pageDepth<=2 ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1783519743.96470.0023 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1783519743.96520.0005 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1783519743.96730.0021 [6] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
1783519743.96840.0011 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/make-a-difference' OR pageSortPath='/make-a-difference' LIMIT 1
1783519743.96910.0007 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-005' LIMIT 1
1783519743.96960.0005 [38] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageTreePosition LIKE '000-005%' ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1783519743.97210.0025 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1783519743.97260.0005 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1783519743.97510.0024 [10] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
1783519743.98220.0072 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/visit' OR pageSortPath='/visit' LIMIT 1
1783519743.98310.0009 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-004' LIMIT 1
1783519743.98370.0007 [30] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageTreePosition LIKE '000-004%' AND pageDepth >=1 AND pageDepth<=2 ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1783519743.98650.0027 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1783519743.9870.0006 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1783519743.990.003 [29] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
1783519743.99320.0032 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/make-a-difference' OR pageSortPath='/make-a-difference' LIMIT 1
1783519743.99380.0006 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-005' LIMIT 1
1783519743.99430.0005 [11] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageTreePosition LIKE '000-005%' AND pageDepth >=1 AND pageDepth<=2 ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1783519743.99640.0021 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1783519743.99690.0005 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1783519743.99950.0026 [10] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
1783519744.00110.0016Request time: 0.2115
1783519744.00120Process time: 0.2113
1783519744.00120Memory: 1.6222