New wave of protection for the sea announced today

Charlotte Owen
, 30 May 2019
New wave of protection for the sea announced today
Tompot blenny (c) Paul Naylor

By Sarah Ward

Living Seas Officer

Today marks a huge landmark in UK marine conservation. Today Defra have announced the designation of 39 new Marine Conservation Zones (MCZs) in the waters around England – three of which are in our local Sussex Seas!

These newly designated sites bring the total number of MCZs around England up to 89 and will take us a big step forward in terms of creating an ecologically coherent network of marine protected areas, a ‘blue belt’ if you will, around the UK. This is a bit of a mouthful, but for the Zones to be effective they need to function together, not as individual sanctuaries. Animals need to be able to move between the Zones to breed, feed and grow. They also need to represent the different kinds of habitats we have in the UK and indeed, they need to be well managed to protect the features that make them special. Management will be the next step following designation, and Sussex Wildlife Trust will be actively engaging with the government bodies and other stakeholders involved throughout this process.

MCZ info May19 flat

The three new MCZs, Selsey Bill & The Hounds, Beachy Head East and Inner Bank, cover a variety of habitats and species. Both Selsey Bill & The Hounds and Beachy Head East are home to short-snouted seahorses, which are afforded protection under the new designation; they also both protect exposures of peat and clay, which form an important habitat characterised by piddocks and other burrowing bivalves. Beachy Head East also affords protection to subtidal chalk, for which the Sussex seas are renowned.

Further offshore, Inner Bank will protect important undersea habitats, including subtidal sands, mixed sediments and course sediments. These habitats all give home to a variety of different creatures, including many burrowing animals and camouflaged flatfish like plaice and sole.

Today’s announcement is exciting as Wildlife Trusts around the country have been working towards completing the network since the Marine and Coastal Access Act came into force in 2009. This is a rewarding step towards reversing the damage and degradation our seas have faced and is a step towards establishing sustainable use of our seas.

Leave a comment

Comments

  • Pete Varkala:

    What actual protections are in place for these areas? Trawling? Fishing? Boating? Diving?
    Thanks

    02 Jun 2019 11:02:00

  • Sussex Wildlife Trust:

    These MCZs will be protected and managed to conserve their important habitats and species, forming part of an ecologically coherent network of protected areas at sea. The management plans are made on a site-by-site basis & will depend on what the site has been designated for but it’s about finding a sustainable balance.

    02 Jun 2019 19:58:50

Time Δ Debug Message - Perch Runway 3.2
1783325925.440 [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
1783325925.46820.0282Matched route: news/[slug:s]
1783325925.46830.0002Server address: 216.73.216.170
1783325925.46840Using master page: /templates/pages/blog/post.php
1783325925.46840Page arguments: 
Array
(
    [0] => /news/new-wave-of-protection-for-the-sea-announced-today
    [s] => new-wave-of-protection-for-the-sea-announced-today
    [1] => new-wave-of-protection-for-the-sea-announced-today
)
1783325925.46870.0003 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1783325925.46950.0008 [86] SELECT DISTINCT settingID, settingValue FROM swt_settings WHERE userID=0
1783325925.47280.0033 [1] SELECT locationID FROM swt_shop_tax_locations WHERE locationIsHome=1 LIMIT 1
1783325925.47340.0006INSERT INTO swt_shop_cart(memberID,locationID,currencyID,cartPricing,cartProperties) VALUES(NULL,'1',47,'standard','[]')
1783325925.5030.0296 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_shop_cart WHERE cartID=22681446
1783325925.5040.001 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_shop_cart WHERE cartID=22681446
1783325925.50450.0005 [nil] SELECT * FROM swt_shop_sales WHERE saleFrom<='2026-07-06 08:18:00' AND saleTo>'2026-07-06 08:18:00' AND saleActive=1 AND saleDeleted IS NULL ORDER BY saleOrder ASC
1783325925.50590.0014 [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='new-wave-of-protection-for-the-sea-announced-today')) AND idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemKey=idx2.itemKey GROUP BY idx.itemID, idx2.indexValue, postID ) as tbl WHERE (postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-07-06 08:18:00' ) GROUP BY itemID, sortval ORDER BY sortval ASC LIMIT 0, 10
1783325925.51190.0061 [1] SELECT FOUND_ROWS() AS `count`
1783325925.51260.0007 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_posts WHERE postID=1782 AND postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-07-06 08:18:00'
1783325925.51390.0013 [13] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_sections ORDER BY sectionTitle ASC
1783325925.51470.0008 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blogs ORDER BY blogTitle ASC
1783325925.51530.0007 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_categories WHERE catID=40 LIMIT 1
1783325925.51580.0005 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_categories WHERE catID=196 LIMIT 1
1783325925.51620.0004 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_categories WHERE catID=44 LIMIT 1
1783325925.51670.0005Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1783325925.51680.0002 [162] SELECT catID, catPath FROM swt_categories
1783325925.51760.0008 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_posts WHERE postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-07-06 08:18:00' AND postSlug='new-wave-of-protection-for-the-sea-announced-today'
1783325925.54250.0248Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1783325925.54290.0004 [250] SELECT country, countryID FROM swt_shop_countries WHERE countryActive=1 ORDER BY country ASC
1783325925.54430.0014Using template: /templates/pages/attributes/seo.html
1783325925.54440.0002 [1] SELECT regionID, regionTemplate, regionPage, regionRev AS rev FROM swt_content_regions WHERE regionKey='Banner image' AND (regionPage='/news/post' OR regionPage='*')
1783325925.54520.0007 [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
1783325925.54640.0012 [82] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageDepth >=0 AND pageDepth<=2 ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1783325925.5490.0026 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1783325925.54950.0005 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1783325925.5520.0026Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template.html
1783325925.55210 [6] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1783325925.55290.0008 [4] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1783325925.55330.0004 [29] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1783325925.55560.0023 [10] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1783325925.55620.0006 [7] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1783325925.55690.0007 [9] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1783325925.55980.0029 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' OR pageSortPath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1783325925.56050.0007 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageHidden=0 AND pageNew=0 AND pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition
1783325925.56250.002 [1] Using template: /templates/navigation/breadcrumbs.html
1783325925.56290.0004Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1783325925.56320.0003 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_authors WHERE authorID='16' LIMIT 1
1783325925.56390.0007Using template: /templates/blog/author.html
1783325925.56430.0004 [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='new-wave-of-protection-for-the-sea-announced-today')) AND idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemKey=idx2.itemKey GROUP BY idx.itemID, idx2.indexValue, postID ) as tbl WHERE (postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-07-06 08:18:00' ) GROUP BY itemID, sortval ORDER BY sortval ASC LIMIT 0, 1
1783325925.56790.0036 [1] SELECT FOUND_ROWS() AS `count`
1783325925.56850.0005 [1] Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1783325925.57120.0027Using template: /templates/blog/comment_form.html
1783325925.57210.0009 [2] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_comments WHERE 1=1 AND postID=1782 AND commentStatus='LIVE' ORDER BY FIELD(webmentionType, 'like', 'repost', 'comment', NULL) ASC, commentDateTime ASC
1783325925.63190.0597 [2] Using template: /templates/blog/comment.html
1783325925.63280.0009Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1783325925.63290.0002 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_authors WHERE authorID='16' LIMIT 1
1783325925.63370.0008 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/what-we-do' OR pageSortPath='/what-we-do' LIMIT 1
1783325925.63730.0036 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-002' LIMIT 1
1783325925.6380.0006 [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
1783325925.64090.003 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1783325925.64140.0005 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1783325925.64340.002 [6] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
1783325925.64440.001 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/make-a-difference' OR pageSortPath='/make-a-difference' LIMIT 1
1783325925.6450.0006 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-005' LIMIT 1
1783325925.64560.0005 [38] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageTreePosition LIKE '000-005%' ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1783325925.64820.0026 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1783325925.64870.0005 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1783325925.6510.0023 [10] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
1783325925.65460.0036 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/visit' OR pageSortPath='/visit' LIMIT 1
1783325925.6560.0015 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-004' LIMIT 1
1783325925.65650.0005 [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
1783325925.65940.0029 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1783325925.66010.0008 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1783325925.66210.002 [29] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
1783325925.66380.0017 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/make-a-difference' OR pageSortPath='/make-a-difference' LIMIT 1
1783325925.66660.0027 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-005' LIMIT 1
1783325925.66720.0007 [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
1783325925.66960.0024 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1783325925.67010.0005 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1783325925.67220.0021 [10] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
1783325925.67370.0016Request time: 0.2357
1783325925.67380Process time: 0.2356
1783325925.67380Memory: 1.627