Seahorses face extinction as their grazing is wiped out
New conservation zones will protect rare and exotic creatures from fishing and seaside development
BRITAIN’S beautiful but endangered shoals of seahorses are in deep trouble because their underwater grass meadows are vanishing.
Unless help arrives soon, the last colonies of marine stallions and mares will starve and die, nature experts are warning.
The fragile plants on which the 5inlong creatures depend are being wiped out by pollution and human disturbances such as speedboats and trawling. Meadows around the coastline are in a “perilous state”, say scientists.
Surveys of 11 sites found high nitrogen levels in water were affecting the health of seagrass in all but two. Seagrass, which is found in shallow waters of coastal regions, is declining globally at a rate of about 7 per cent a year.
In the studies, even where conditions were good, seagrass faced damage from mooring or anchoring boats, said researchers at Cardiff and Swansea Universities.
Nitrogen from agriculture and industry running off land into the sea is killing the plants. Levels of the chemical were found to be 75 per cent higher than global averages.
Dr Richard Unsworth, one researcher, said: “We conducted the most extensive assessment to date of the environmental conditions of seagrasses in the British Isles, using techniques widely used to assess these habitats in places such as the Great Barrier Reef. All the sites in our study were at risk from pollution, boating or both, even those in relatively remote locations.
“We’ve lost at least 50 per cent of these habitats in the British Isles. Losing more should not be an option.”
The World Wildlife Fund is calling on the Government to ensure seagrass, already a protected species, is properly conserved.
Simon Cripps, of Dorset Wildlife Trust, said: “The health of the marine environment depends on protection of the seabed, mainly from dredging and trawling. All it takes is one dredger, and years of conservation work are lost – it’s like taking a plough to your garden.”
SPINY lobsters, “upside-down” stalked jellyfish and native oysters are among species ministers have promised to protect through a new series of marine conservation zones (MCZs) unveiled today.
The so-called “Blue Belt” protecting UK waters, a maritime equivalent of the Green Belt, is to more than double in size following the designation of 23 safeguarded areas covering 4,155 square miles of marine habitat.
The zones include protection for blue mussels in Allonby Bay, Cumbria, and pink sea-fan corals and fragile sponge off the north coast of Devon and Cornwall.
They include Fulmar, some 140 miles off the coast of Northumberland, and Land’s End in the South West.
In all, when added to the 27 zones created in 2013, MCZ status will now apply to an area covering 7,886 square miles – about the size of Wales, and including around one fifth of all English waters, the Government said.
The level of conservation required varies from site to site and for different habitats within each zone, with a total of 45 different types of habitat, geological features and species now under protection.
For example, in a new zone around the Needles, off the Isle of Wight, where the native oyster and seagrass beds that support the Sea Hare mollusc are designated to be “recovered”, there may be new restrictions on fishermen trawling and oyster dredging.
Ministers say the measures will provide “vital protection for the diverse array of wildlife in our seas” and should “halt the deterioration of the UK’s marine biodiversity”.
George Eustice, the marine minister, said: “Our underwater habitats support a treasure trove of surprisingly exotic wildlife – spiny lobsters off the south and west coasts, whose armourlike orange-brown shells are shed as they grow; stalked jellyfish which appear upside-down because their tentacles sit on the top of their bodies; tall, luminous soft corals growing on our sea beds, known as sea pens because they look like old-fashioned quills.”
While concerns have been raised about the impact on fishermen from the zones, Mr Eustice said: “Fishing is the lifeblood of many coastal communities, including my own constituency in Cornwall, and we must keep it that way.”
He said the Government had already provided additional quota to the small, inshore fishing fleet.
“Healthy seas and sustainable fishing go hand in hand with a more profitable fishery in the long term,” he added. “We are ensuring that our seas remain healthy, our fishing industry remains prosperous, and future generations can enjoy our beautiful beaches, coastline and waters.”
Environmental critics have suggested the MCZ designations lack teeth because they do not impose outright bans on the harmful activities they are supposed to prevent. ‘We are ensuring that future generations can enjoy our beautiful beaches, coastline and waters’
Documents show that decisions over managing the new zones will be “taken on a case-by-case basis by relevant regulators” and “will not automatically mean that economic and recreational activities will be restricted”.
It is up to the Marine Management Organisation and inshore fisheries and conservation authorities to effect restrictions through enforcing bylaws or licensing, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) confirmed.
Protections are set to be tested in Cornwall, where developers want to reopen the disused Dean Quarry on the Lizard and build new jetties and a breakwater in the Manacles MCZ.
Residents and wildlife groups are opposed to the plans amid concerns about the impact on the habitats which are home to species such as spiny lobster, stalked jellyfish and sea fan anemones.
Developers want to use the quarry to ship rocks to Swansea, where they propose to construct a new green-energy “tidal lagoon”.
However, the project appears to be stalling after the High Court overturned planning consent and the Prime Minister raised concerns about the cost of the lagoon.
Critics have also complained after some habitats were excluded from consideration as conservation zones. Studland Bay in Dorset, a home to seahorses, was proposed but rejected, with Defra citing concerns about the impact on “recreational boating activities” among other reasons.
A third tranche of zones is to be put forward for public consultation in 2017, and designated in 2018.
Defra is also planning to consult later this month on new special areas of conservation for harbour porpoise and other protected zones covering feeding and bathing areas used by birds including spoonbills in Poole Harbour and puffins on the Northumberland coast.