Marine Conservation Zone


A Marine Conservation Zone is a type of marine nature reserve in UK waters. They were established under the Marine and Coastal Access Act and are areas designated with the aim to protect nationally important, rare or threatened habitats and species. Approximately 20% of UK waters now have some protection although some conservation, fisherman and wildlife groups are concerned that there are no management plans for each zone.
Following Brexit, legislation creating the powers for the UK to operate as an independent coastal state and manage its fish stocks sustainably outside the EU was introduced into Parliament in January 2020. This would give new powers to the Marine Management Organisation in English waters.

No Take Zones

MCZs generally do not provide "no-take" protection banning fishing. However,
Lundy Island MCZ includes a preexisting "no-take zone", which was established in 2003.
Two more no-take zones have been established in UK waters :
There has been criticism of the MCZs for not providing "no-take" protection for a higher proportion of UK waters; for example, the environmentalist George Monbiot has raised the issue in his column in The Guardian.

England

On 21 November 2013 the first twenty-seven Marine Conservation Zones were designated, followed by a further twenty-three on 17 January 2016. There are now fifty MCZs in English seas protecting an area of.

2013 Marine Conservation Zones

  1. Aln Estuary
  2. Beachy Head West
  3. Blackwater, Crouch, Roach and Colne Estuaries
  4. The Canyons
  5. Chesil Beach and Stennis Ledges
  6. Cumbria Coast
  7. East of Haig Fras
  8. Folkestone Pomerania
  9. Fylde
  10. Isles of Scilly
  11. Kingmere
  12. Lundy
  13. The Manacles
  14. Medway Estuary
  15. North East of Farnes Deep
  16. Padstow Bay and Surrounds
  17. Pagham Harbour
  18. Poole Rocks
  19. Skerries Bank and Surrounds
  20. South Dorset
  21. South-West Deeps
  22. Swallow Sand
  23. Tamar Estuary
  24. Thanet Coast
  25. Torbay
  26. Upper Fowey and Pont Pill
  27. Whitsand and Looe Bay

    2016 Marine Conservation Zones

  28. Allonby Bay
  29. Bideford to Foreland Bay
  30. Coquet to St Mary's
  31. Cromer Shoal Chalk Beds
  32. Dover to Deal
  33. Dover to Folkestone
  34. Farnes East
  35. Fulmar
  36. Greater Haig Fras
  37. Hartland Point to Tintagel
  38. Holderness Inshore
  39. North-west of Jones Bank
  40. Land's End
  41. Mount's Bay
  42. The Needles
  43. Newquay and The Gannel
  44. Offshore Brighton
  45. Offshore Overfalls
  46. Runswick Bay
  47. Swale Estuary
  48. Utopia
  49. Western Channel
  50. West of Walney co-location zone

    Northern Ireland

Following the passing of the Marine Act 2013 only Strangford Lough was designated as a Marine Conservation Zone. In 2015 consultations for a further four proposed MCZs were announced.
The consultations ended in March 2016 and the four MCZs were designated in December 2016.

Proposed Marine Conservation Zones

  1. Carlingford
  2. Outer Belfast Lough
  3. Rathlin
  4. Waterfoot

    Scotland

In the summer of 2014 the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Food and the Environment announced thirty new Marine Protected Areas. Along with thirty Special Areas of Conservation, forty-seven Special Protection Areas and sixty-one Sites of Special Scientific Interest, 20% of Scottish waters have differing levels of protection.

Nature Conservation Marine Protected Areas

There are seventeen protected areas within Scotland's territorial waters
  1. Clyde Sea Sill
  2. East Caithness Cliffs
  3. Fetlar to Haroldswick
  4. Loch Creran
  5. Loch Sunart
  6. Loch Sunart to the Sound of Jura
  7. Loch Sween
  8. Lochs Duich, Long and Alsh
  9. Monarch Isles
  10. Mousa to Boddam
  11. Noss Head
  12. Papa Westray
  13. Small Isles
  14. South Arran
  15. Upper Loch Fyne and Loch Goil
  16. Wester Ross
  17. Wyre and Rousay Sounds
A further thirteen protected areas are outside Scottish territorial waters
  1. Central Fladen
  2. East of Gannet and Montrose Fields
  3. Faroe-Shetland Sponge Belt
  4. Firth of Forth Banks Complex
  5. Geikie Slide and Hebridean Slope
  6. Hatton-Rockall Basin
  7. North-east Faroe-Shetland Channel
  8. North-west Orkney
  9. Norwegian Boundary Sediment Plain
  10. Rosemary Bank Seamount
  11. Barra Fan and Hebrides Terrace Seamount
  12. Turbot Bank
  13. West Shetland Shelf

    Wales

is the only site in Wales designated as a Marine Conservation Zone. There are 128 marine protected areas in Welsh seas and Natural Resources Wales is consulting with the Welsh Government and the Joint Nature Conservation Committee to consider if anymore areas need protecting.

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