STOP DAMAGE TO SEABED

07 June 2007
Posted in THE NEWS - BRIDPORT NEWS & VIEWS

Over 200 signatures were collected in Bridport last Saturday morning for a petition by the Marine Conservation Society calling on the Government to introduce Highly Protected Marine Areas, or No-Take Zones, which would protect threatened species and allow fishing stocks to recover. Members of Bridport Environment Group also collected 40 signed letters in support of the Government’s Marine Bill White Paper, which plans to establish a network of Marine Protected Areas in UK waters.

The issue has been highlighted recently by the presence at West Bay of a number of scallop-dredging trawlers using mobile dredging gear, which land their catches at the harbour every evening.

“A No-take Zone would only cover a very small area of Lyme Bay,” explained Susan Anders, Chair of the Environment Group.  “We want to support local fishermen using less damaging methods, because their livelihood is also threatened by the activities of a few.  We understand that some sort of voluntary agreement may be in place, but it is unclear how effective this is. Above all we want the Government to make it clear it will act decisively to stop this continuing devastation.”

Next Meeting (12 June 2007)

At the next meeting of the Bridport Environment Group, which is open to members and non-members, freelance journalist Horatio Morpurgo, in a talk called 'From Rospuda With Love', will explore two of the biggest environmental protests of recent years in Eastern Europe - against an open-cast gold mine in western Transylvania (Romania) and a motorway crossing the Rospuda Valley, in eastern Poland. These campaigns, he suggests, offer valuable perspectives on how the Europes, 'old' and 'new', might come to understand each other better.

The meeting will be held at Mountfield next Tuesday, 12 June, at 5. 30 pm.