The Wildlife Trusts, which bring together 800,000 members across the country, are calling for the setting up of 17 safe havens for whales, dolphins and sharks around the coast of England and Wales to create a network of Marine Protected Areas. At the moment the UK’s existing Marine Conservation Zones, which are dotted around the coast, only protect the habitat and wildlife on the seabed and not what are called 'marine megafauna’ in the waters themselves.
The Trusts say the safe havens would prevent activities such as scallop dredging and bottom trawling. They would also force wind farm developers to halt construction when schools of dolphins gather nearby and undertake more research new methods to install turbines.
Dolphins, porpoises and whales, who communicate and navigate using sonar, are particularly sensitive to the noise and vibrations from the pile driving used by developers to erect the wind turbine platforms.
The call comes as the Government gave the go-ahead for the second phase of the planned 400 turbine Dogger Bank offshore wind farm. Sitting between 75 and 180 miles off the North East coast, it would be one of the largest offshore wind farms in the world when completed.
Mrs Edwards said: “We are concerned about the effect that noise created by pile driving through the sea bed during the construction of offshore wind farms has on sensitive animals such as porpoises and dolphins.”
She added: “The UK has made huge advances in marine conservation in recent years, but there is still a significant job to do. Our marine megafauna – whales, dolphins, porpoises and basking sharks – are still under threat. Many are suffering from the impacts of fishing, whether direct or indirect, increased boat traffic, marine developments and the more persistent effects of pollution – many substances bioaccumulate and affect generations of animals and overall population health.
“Not all of these impacts can be mitigated by spatial protection measures alone but, by designating areas of the sea which are known hotshots, we can provide safe havens for these species and some impacts can be limited or removed altogether.”
The 17 safe havens proposed by The Wildlife Trusts include Lyme Bay, Cardigan Bay and Pembrokeshire Marine – all notable for their population of harbour porpoises; Dogger Bank – notable for harbour porpoise and white-beaked dolphin – and the Manacles, off the Lizard peninsula, in Cornwall – notable for basking shark, harbour porpoise and minke whale.
A spokesman for the trusts added: “Some of these places already have designations – whether as Marine Conservation Zones, Special Areas of Conservation and more – but unfortunately whales, dolphins and basking sharks are not listed as 'features’ to be protected within them.
“Whales, dolphins, porpoises and sharks have been overlooked, despite their size and charismatic nature, falling between the gaps in our legislative processes, in part because of their mobile nature and the controversy which surrounds spatial protection measures for mobile species. This is why we are calling for either new conservation areas, or for these species to be recognised and protected within existing designated areas.”
The Wildlife Trusts, which is made up of 47 regional wildlife trusts and manages around 2,300 nature reserves and a number of marine conservation projects around the UK, plan to present a petition to Downing Street in September, support of its plan for Marine Protected Areas.
