5 STUDLAND BAY BOATING THREAT
All boating activity could be banned from Studland Bay, one of the UK’S most popular South Coast anchorages. A controversial new online consultation process initiated by DEFRA’S Marine Management Organisation (MMO) put forward a number of different proposals, ranging from doing nothing but monitoring the situation, to banning all forms of boating activity including dinghy sailing and paddleboarding. However, it came with the proviso that the former option was unlikely to be sufficient.
Moves to curtail boating have been around since 2019 when the bay was designated a Marine Conservation Zone (MCZ) and the original focus was on anchoring restrictions. This is still one possible option but the new proposals go much further.
The deadline for submitting responses closed on 15 December with many boat owners, marine businesses and other interested parties complaining that the process hadn’t been widely publicised in sufficient time for people to gather evidence and that the online form was unnecessarily long and complex.
The aim is to preserve the bay’s seagrass meadows, which are rich habitats for marine life including seahorses. The Boat Owners Response Group (BORG), which promotes boating in MCZ contexts, suggests there is little research on anchoring impact. It claims where moorings have been laid in clean sand at Studland Bay, seagrass has grown up around them to the low-water scope of the ground tackle, suggesting that the impact of moorings on bottom vegetation, “is much less than claimed”, a view disputed by some scientists.