Ingham’s W RLD
THE sky was blue, the sea shimmered sunset diamonds and then a huge black shape leapt from the deep like a giant salmon. It was a dolphin casting a magic spell while I admired the view from a Cornish clifftop. Off the Isle of Man I watched basking sharks, the world’s second largest fish, plankton-feeding right next to our small boat.
These sea creatures made my day. Spotting them is beyond special. You feel as if they’ve decided to let you into their secret world.
Our beautiful islands should be blessed with marine life. But MPs warned this week that we risk letting it go the way of so much of our wildlife.
Despite a 2015 Tory manifesto pledge to complete a network of marine conservation zones, only 50 of the 127 originally recommended sites around England have been designated.
The all-party Environmental Audit Committee slammed the “slow progress”, said existing protected areas “are not being effectively managed” and criticised the Government’s “lack of ambition”.
The Government insists that it is committed to creating a protected “Blue Belt” around our coasts and that 17 per cent of UK waters are classed as Marine Protection Areas including MCZs.
But more needs to be done. Brexit offers a chance for a radical overhaul as we could escape the shackles of the EU’s Common Fisheries Policy and its plundering foreign fleets.
Protecting larger areas of our waters from commercial activity should lead to a revival of everything from fish stocks to whales.
So conservation, done sensibly, should boost business and the wildlife that loves our shores.
And it really does love it. The UK is globally important for seabirds, with nearly eight million coming here every year to breed on our cliffs, sands and shingle. They create noisy bird cities such as Bass Rock near Edinburgh and St Kilda off the Outer Hebrides.
The RSPB says the UK and Ireland support 60 per cent of the global breeding population of great skuas, up to 90 per cent of Manx shearwaters and 68 per cent of northern gannets.
But we also need to protect creatures most of us never see: seahorses, dolphins, porpoises, whales and sharks.
So the Government should do the right thing by our forgotten wildlife and designate the promised MCZs. The Wildlife Trusts says another 50 would make a big difference. Then perhaps our grandchildren will thrill to the dolphins and basking sharks I was so privileged to see. ONE of the good guys was hailed this week in a film about British campaigner Jill Robinson’s 24-year battle to end animal cruelty in China and Vietnam. The Animals Asia founder has created two sanctuaries where moon bears rescued from cruel bile farms live out their lives in peace. Prepare to be inspired. AN OBITUARY this week told of another good guy to whom yellowhammers and hedgehogs should be eternally grateful. Botanist Max Hooper, who died aged 82, helped stem the destruction of our hedgerows by coming up with a formula to age them: you multiply the number of woody species by 100. This helped identify ancient hedges – the most valuable for wildlife. GREEN TIP: Check for wildlife before cutting hedges or long grass. BABY whales keep safe by whispering with mother, researchers tell Functional Ecology. Humpback whale calves keep in touch with nursing mothers by using very quiet “squeaks and grunts”. They keep quiet to avoid attracting the attention of killer whales. ROADS could pay for their own repairs under a scheme which this week won a prestigious Wolfson Economics Lightbulb Prize. When the sun warms the tarmac, they can make solar energy, says David Williams of the University of the West of England. Power extracted by heat pumps could then earn money by keeping the lights on or charging up batteries.