Verdict on stalled “super year” for marine protection

admin
, 19 January 2022
Verdict on stalled “super year” for marine protection
Cuckoo Wrasse © Rob Goldsmith

By Sarah Ward

Living Seas Officer

In a speech to the Coastal Futures Conference in January 2021, Environment Minister Rebecca Pow declared 2021 to be a ‘Marine Super Year’, stating that the UK would use its presidency of COP26 to lead calls to restore the marine environment to health. The Minister stressed that global leadership ‘‘really starts with our ambition and delivery at home’’.

This declaration was welcomed at the time by Wildlife Trusts, but what did it actually mean in practice?

One year on, the Wildlife & Countryside Link’s Marine Group, which includes The Wildlife Trust along with other eNGOs, has published a scorecard which set out what needed to be done in order for 2021 to really be called a ‘Marine Super Year’. This included targets for ocean recovery, marine biodiversity, reforming offshore planning, acting on huge pressures for our seas, and protecting and restoring blue carbon habitats.

The scorecard reads a little like a school report, but sadly the student is lagging behind where they ought to be. In reality, this shows a concerning lack of meaningful and demonstrable action, with ‘good’ progress having been made in only two of the seventeen actions. The report really highlights that 2021 was a missed opportunity for ocean action.

Joan Edwards OBE, Director Policy and Public Affairs at The Wildlife Trusts said: “While 2021 has laid the groundwork, we hope to see the delivery of vital HPMAs in 2022, with a list of pilot sites this Spring and for these protections to be in place by the year’s end. Action to protect our precious marine life remains in the Government’s reach and the ambitions for a Marine Super Year can still be achieved given sufficient political will.

“We call on the Government to enact the policies we have highlighted as outstanding from 2021 as the basis of a comprehensive marine recovery agenda for 2022.”

For further information and to read the report scorecard, please visit The Wildlife Trusts’ website.

Leave a comment
Time Δ Debug Message - Perch Runway 3.2
1783025397.81950 [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
1783025397.85940.0399Matched route: news/[slug:s]
1783025397.85960.0001Server address: 216.73.217.131
1783025397.85960Using master page: /templates/pages/blog/post.php
1783025397.85960Page arguments: 
Array
(
    [0] => /news/verdict-on-stalled-super-year-for-marine-protection
    [s] => verdict-on-stalled-super-year-for-marine-protection
    [1] => verdict-on-stalled-super-year-for-marine-protection
)
1783025397.85990.0003 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1783025397.8610.0011 [86] SELECT DISTINCT settingID, settingValue FROM swt_settings WHERE userID=0
1783025397.86310.0021 [1] SELECT locationID FROM swt_shop_tax_locations WHERE locationIsHome=1 LIMIT 1
1783025397.86380.0006INSERT INTO swt_shop_cart(memberID,locationID,currencyID,cartPricing,cartProperties) VALUES(NULL,'1',47,'standard','[]')
1783025397.86570.0019 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_shop_cart WHERE cartID=22537632
1783025397.86620.0005 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_shop_cart WHERE cartID=22537632
1783025397.86680.0006 [nil] SELECT * FROM swt_shop_sales WHERE saleFrom<='2026-07-02 20:49:00' AND saleTo>'2026-07-02 20:49:00' AND saleActive=1 AND saleDeleted IS NULL ORDER BY saleOrder ASC
1783025397.86810.0013 [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='verdict-on-stalled-super-year-for-marine-protection')) AND idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemKey=idx2.itemKey GROUP BY idx.itemID, idx2.indexValue, postID ) as tbl WHERE (postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-07-02 20:49:00' ) GROUP BY itemID, sortval ORDER BY sortval ASC LIMIT 0, 10
1783025397.87030.0022 [1] SELECT FOUND_ROWS() AS `count`
1783025397.87080.0005 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_posts WHERE postID=2712 AND postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-07-02 20:49:00'
1783025397.87150.0008 [13] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_sections ORDER BY sectionTitle ASC
1783025397.87210.0006 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blogs ORDER BY blogTitle ASC
1783025397.87270.0005 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_categories WHERE catID=196 LIMIT 1
1783025397.87320.0005 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_categories WHERE catID=44 LIMIT 1
1783025397.87390.0008Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1783025397.87410.0002 [162] SELECT catID, catPath FROM swt_categories
1783025397.87480.0007 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_posts WHERE postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-07-02 20:49:00' AND postSlug='verdict-on-stalled-super-year-for-marine-protection'
1783025397.89550.0206Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1783025397.8960.0005 [250] SELECT country, countryID FROM swt_shop_countries WHERE countryActive=1 ORDER BY country ASC
1783025397.89760.0016Using template: /templates/pages/attributes/seo.html
1783025397.89780.0002 [1] SELECT regionID, regionTemplate, regionPage, regionRev AS rev FROM swt_content_regions WHERE regionKey='Banner image' AND (regionPage='/news/post' OR regionPage='*')
1783025397.89870.0009 [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
1783025397.89980.0012 [82] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageDepth >=0 AND pageDepth<=2 ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1783025397.90260.0028 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1783025397.9030.0005 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1783025397.9050.0019Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template.html
1783025397.9050.0001 [6] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1783025397.90580.0008 [4] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1783025397.90640.0005 [29] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1783025397.90920.0028 [10] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1783025397.91020.0011 [7] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1783025397.9110.0007 [9] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1783025397.91390.003 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' OR pageSortPath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1783025397.91490.001 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageHidden=0 AND pageNew=0 AND pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition
1783025397.9170.0021 [1] Using template: /templates/navigation/breadcrumbs.html
1783025397.91750.0005Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1783025397.91770.0003 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_authors WHERE authorID='1' LIMIT 1
1783025397.91840.0006Using template: /templates/blog/author.html
1783025397.91870.0003 [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='verdict-on-stalled-super-year-for-marine-protection')) AND idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemKey=idx2.itemKey GROUP BY idx.itemID, idx2.indexValue, postID ) as tbl WHERE (postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-07-02 20:49:00' ) GROUP BY itemID, sortval ORDER BY sortval ASC LIMIT 0, 1
1783025397.92060.0019 [1] SELECT FOUND_ROWS() AS `count`
1783025397.92110.0005 [1] Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1783025397.92350.0024Using template: /templates/blog/comment_form.html
1783025397.92440.0009 [nil] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_comments WHERE 1=1 AND postID=2712 AND commentStatus='LIVE' ORDER BY FIELD(webmentionType, 'like', 'repost', 'comment', NULL) ASC, commentDateTime ASC
1783025397.97310.0488 [0] Using template: /templates/blog/comment.html
1783025397.97330.0002Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1783025397.97350.0002 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_authors WHERE authorID='1' LIMIT 1
1783025397.97440.0008 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/what-we-do' OR pageSortPath='/what-we-do' LIMIT 1
1783025397.9750.0006 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-002' LIMIT 1
1783025397.97560.0006 [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
1783025397.97760.0021 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1783025397.97810.0004 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1783025397.97990.0018 [6] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
1783025397.98080.0009 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/make-a-difference' OR pageSortPath='/make-a-difference' LIMIT 1
1783025397.98140.0006 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-005' LIMIT 1
1783025397.98170.0004 [38] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageTreePosition LIKE '000-005%' ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1783025397.9840.0022 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1783025397.98450.0006 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1783025397.98650.0019 [10] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
1783025397.98980.0033 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/visit' OR pageSortPath='/visit' LIMIT 1
1783025397.99060.0008 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-004' LIMIT 1
1783025397.99110.0005 [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
1783025397.99330.0022 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1783025397.99370.0004 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1783025397.99550.0019 [29] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
1783025397.99820.0027 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/make-a-difference' OR pageSortPath='/make-a-difference' LIMIT 1
1783025397.99890.0007 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-005' LIMIT 1
1783025397.99930.0005 [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
1783025398.00150.0022 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1783025398.00190.0004 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1783025398.00390.0019 [10] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
1783025398.00550.0016Request time: 0.1884
1783025398.00550Process time: 0.1882
1783025398.00550Memory: 1.6222