First Marine Protected Areas in offshore British waters
At last cold
water coral reefs, offshore rocky reefs and submarine structures
made by leaking gases are legally protected in British waters. Five
marine nature reserves (termed Special Areas of Conservation) have
been created, using the European Habitats Directive to protect
magnificent creatures such as bright pink jewel anemones, yellow
cup corals, orange sponges, elegant featherstars and starfish.
The first five sites were formally sent to the European
Commission by their 1st September deadline this week.
One of the sites far off north west Scotland,
the Darwin Mounds, is set up to protect the slow-growing, fragile,
pink and orange corals (Lophelia pertusa) which form
reefs. These beautiful reefs are found in deep, dark, cold
waters and provide shelter for a variety of deep water fish and
invertebrates, such as monkfish, bright orange basket stars and
colourful soft corals. At the Braemar and Scanner pockmark sites in
the northern North Sea, gas bubbles up from below the muddy seabed
creating unusual hard structures, which are settled on by
bright-coloured anemones and soft corals, and provide shelter for
fish such as wolf-fish and cod. Off south western England and
south western Scotland, the ross corals, pink, yellow and white
sponges, brittlestars and other invertebrates of the deep rocky
reefs at Haig Fras and Stanton Banks are now legally protected.
JNCC (Joint Nature Conservation Committee) has
been working for eight years to survey the seabed, collect data
from others, and locate special areas of reefs, sandbanks and
submarine structures that need to be protected under the Habitats
Directive. From December 2007 to March 2008, JNCC consulted
widely on their first seven proposals for these sites.
After taking account of the results of the consultation, five of
these sites were submitted to the European Commission last
week. Defra and JNCC are resolving issues raised during the
consultation for the other two SACs consulted upon, and these will
be submitted to the European Commission as soon as these issues are
resolved.
These are the first offshore areas to go
through the process, with up to a possible two dozen more marine
Special Areas of Conservation still to be recommended. They will
link up with an international network of protected areas in the
waters of other countries in the European Union.
Charlotte Johnston, Marine Natura Sites
Manager, said “We are excited to have these sites now legally
protected after so much work by so many people. Now we need
to work on successful management of the sites to keep them in good
condition, and that will involve many individuals and organisations
in Europe as well as Britain”.
The next rounds of consultations, which are
anticipated to lead to the second phase of offshore SACs, are
targeted to begin in the winter of 2008-09.
Notes to Editors
JNCC’s
report of the 2007-08 offshore SAC consultation, plus revised
documents and maps for each site, are available from JNCC’s website
at: www.jncc.gov.uk/marineconsult
The Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) is the
statutory adviser to Government on UK and international nature
conservation, on behalf of the Council for Nature Conservation and the
Countryside, the Countryside Council for
Wales, Natural England and
Scottish Natural Heritage. Its work
contributes to maintaining and enriching biological diversity,
conserving geological features and sustaining natural
systems.
The EC Habitats Directive and the Birds Directive aim
to conserve natural flora and fauna across the European Community.
One of the measures to achieve this is by establishing a network of
protected sites (SACs and SPAs) for rare, endangered, vulnerable or
endemic species of plants and animals, and those which represent
outstanding
examples of habitats within Europe.
The UK offshore area lies between 12 and 200
nautical miles from the coast and out to the Continental Shelf
designated area. JNCC is responsible for identifying SACs under the
EC Habitats Directive in this sea area.
The network of terrestrial and coastal Natura
sites is largely complete. There are currently 76 SACs with marine
components and 72 Special Protection Areas (SPAs) with marine
components already designated in coastal and inshore waters in the
UK.
UK inshore waters lie from the coastline to 12
nautical miles. The responsibility of the implementation of the EC
Habitats Directive in this region is that of each of the
country conservation bodies (Natural England, Countryside
Council for Wales, Scottish Natural Heritage and the Council for
Nature Conservation and the Countryside).
The Annex I habitats for which the list of
SACs is not yet complete are ‘Sandbanks which are slightly covered
by seawater all the time’, ‘Reefs’, ‘Submarine structures made by
leaking gases’ and ‘Submerged or partially submerged sea
caves’.
For further information please contact:
Marine Natura Sites Manager
Marine Protected Sites Team, JNCC
01733 562626 or 07974 257548 out of hours