South Glos FoE continues to support MARINET – the FoE Local Groups campaigning and information network – formally established four years ago.

A significant achievement by MARINET over the past year has been the development of their excellent website which contains in-depth information on all MARINET’s campaigning activities, and links to other organisations providing marine information.

Current key campaigns are:

• Marine Aggregates - Dredging of our coastal seabed for sand and gravel has major local impacts on marine life, and significant impact on beaches and coastal defences over a wider area. Marine sand and gravel now supplies around 30% of the aggregate needs of the construction industry in south-east England; in London the figure is well in excess of 50%. The 2012 Olympics is already regarded as a marvellous business opportunity for the aggregates industry! But, this will be at the price of the marine environment – not only off the East Anglian coast, where the industry is traditionally based – but also in the bio-diverse Eastern English Channel. The government has just agreed to a raft of brand new extraction licences. Other coastal areas, such as the Severn Estuary and Welsh coasts, may also come under consideration.
• The Marine Bill - will be introduced to Parliament in the next year or so. MARINET has long campaigned for this and recently participated in a DEFRA consultation on government proposals for a resource use/planning system for the sea, and a new government agency to handle planning, licensing and marine nature conservation issues. MARINET wants to see a much stronger Marine Bill than that currently proposed. Key comments offered include:
  • Formation of a Ministry for the Sea with a Secretary of State at Cabinet level, responsible for all marine issues, including fisheries and conservation.
  • A ~Network of Marine Reserves– All interested parties should be involved in the establishment of Marine Reserves in UK seas up to 200 nautical miles from the coast, with conservation as their primary purpose. Within them all extractive activity would be forbidden, including fishing. Combined together these reserves would form a network covering at least 30% of UK seas, to protect and re-invigorate marine biodiversity, which is increasingly being damaged.
  • 3 Independent Agencies of Government for Marine Planning, Licences and Nature Conservation - implementing an ecosystem-based approach to the management of UK seas. The Agencies would be “independent” of each other in order to ensure that their tasks are conducted openly and transparently and thereby accountable to all users of the sea.
• Renewable Energyo - If the UK is to remain mainly self-sufficient in energy then the marine environment could provide both a significant resource and a tremendous opportunity. Marine currents and tidal movements probably offer the largest and most dependable resource.

Finally, before you plan your next trip to the coast, you might consider consulting the http: www.marinet.org.uk {Marinet website} and select UK Bathing Waters - all is not as well as you might think! Christine Harding — Web Master auto generated by txt2dokuwiki//