RSPB Renews Call for Offshore Marine Bill

More than 70 UK coastal areas should be given legal protection to preserve wildlife such as seabirds, the RSPB urged today.

The conservation charity has suggested 71 sites important for breeding seabirds which need protection, ranging from the Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland to the North Solent off the south coast of England.

Under current law, the land where seabird colonies nest is protected but their offshore feeding areas are not.

The extent of marine sites around the UK which are fully protected is one square mile in every 100,000. The RSPB described the existing level of protection as “like a tea bag floating on an Olympic swimming pool”.

The charity said birds such as the black guillemot, gannet and roseate tern could benefit from marine-protected areas to prevent over-fishing, offshore industry and pollution.

There is no mechanism for protecting the areas suggested in the Safeguarding our Seabirds: Marine Protected Areas for the UK’s Seabirds report, the RSPB said.

They could be established under a Marine Bill, a draft of which is due to be published by the Government.

Kate Tanner, marine policy officer for the RSPB, said: “We have plundered the riches of the UK’s seas for centuries at great cost to wildlife. The sea has shaped our islands’ history, geography and culture and now, as time runs out for marine wildlife, it is crucial we act decisively to protect the environment that defines us.

“From basking sharks to barnacles, cod to cold-water corals, the UK’s seas contain an immense variety of threatened and beautiful wildlife.”

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