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December newsletter
Welcome to the fourth edition of the Finding Sanctuary newsletter
At the moment this newsletter goes out to around 500 people every quarter in the South West and beyond. For the last year, this has been our primary update and output from us to you with information about Finding Sanctuary’s progress. However, we always wanted to ensure that there was an element of strong and positive engagement from you to us, and as the project is really getting under this is beginning to happen on a number of levels:
- Our Steering Group met for the first time in September for a day-long discussion that led to the development of their Terms of Reference. The 15-strong group comprises a broad range of maritime stakeholders with a key responsibility in ensuring that decisions are fair, balanced and within the parameters set by the project.
- Fishermen in Dorset, Somerset and Devon are being interviewed by our two new Project Liaison Officers, Dan Edwards and Spike Searle. This work is taking place through the Fishermap project that started in September.
With three more people joining us over the last three months, our office in South West Food and Drink is becoming a much livelier place. Dan Edwards and Spike Searle spend almost all of their time out of the office meeting and interviewing fishermen. Shaun Lewin is working closely with Louise Lieberknecht as part of the MPA network development team using GIS and database software. Find out more about our Finding Sanctuary team.
The first regional GIS layers are beginning to emerge from our MPA planning team.
We are currently searching for a Chairman for our Steering Group. This person will play a crucial role in the decisions that will move Finding Sanctuary forward. Anyone interested should contact Tom Hooper on 01392 878327.
There are also working on a number of funding proposals and exciting new developments |
Finding Sanctuary Team
The Finding Sanctuary Team has been expanding rapidly over the past three months with the first of our project liaison officers joining us in September, followed by a GIS and Data officer in October.
Shaun Lewin is our new GIS and Data Officer. He is an extremely experienced ARC-GIS user and cartographer who will be working alongside Louise Lieberknecht as part of the MPA Planning team. Shaun has a particular expertise with Access databases and has a high level of experience with Arc GIS and programming languages. He was part of the team that developed the South West marine meta-data catalogue for Finding Sanctuary.
Dan Edwards is the Dorset and Somerset Project Liaison Officer. Over the last three years he has been working as a fisherman out of Whitstable, Kent. He also has many years of fishing and aquaculture experience from a number of jobs Ireland and Australia. He is a graduate in Marine Resource Management from Aberdeen University.
Spike Searle is the Devon project liaison officer and is well known in the South West from his former role as the liaison officer with the Invest in Fish project. He is a graduate in fisheries economics, science and technology from the University of Plymouth and has a great deal of experience as a discard and fisheries researcher in Cornwall. He was a professional fisherman for fifteen years working out of Newlyn, Ireland and France.
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FisherMap
We are now just two months into this 16 month project to map fishermen’s activity and ecological knowledge in Dorset, Devon and Somerset. This project is a significant part of Finding Sanctuary since it will allow us to understand much more clearly the complicated pattern of sea use and to begin to develop a closer engagement with fishermen around the region.
Working closely alongside our expert adviser, Dr Sophie Des Clers our two Project Liaison officers Spike and Dan have been developing the technical approach that we will use. They have looked carefully at the techniques used in Canada, the Thames Estuary and in particular in Cornwall where the CFPO are carrying out a similar exercise.
We will be working in an A2-sized format with printed maps and acetates that will be marked with permanent pens, digitised and incorporated into our GIS. At the same time our GIS team has developed an Access database that will be used to store and analyse information. Over 120 different geographical coverages of the region, at three different scales have been printed and laminated to enable us to cover a wide range of different fishing types.
We have also produced a brochure for fishermen, which introduces the Fishermap project and explains to fishermen why their knowledge and activity information is so important. The first interviews are already underway as I write.
If you have any questions about this project, please contact Dan Edwards on 01305 224877 or Spike Searle on 07815 942420.
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Steering Group in place
For me, one of the most significant points in the past few months has been the setting up of the Steering Group. This group was based upon recommendations from over 120 people who attended our regional workshop in April. We now have 15 people representing key maritime stakeholders in the region who will guide the design and selection of our regional MPA network.
The Steering Group met for the first time in September for a discussion that was led and facilitated for us by Diana Pound of Dialogue Matters. This allowed the group to discuss and agree on their Terms of Reference and the ways that they will work into the future. Further details on the Finding Sanctuary Steering Group will be available on our website soon.
Steering Group searching for a Chairman
With the Steering Group set up in September, we have been recently publicising our search for a Chairman to lead it. We are looking for someone who has the commitment and stature to lead the group through constructive decisions over the coming years. They will need to have a rare combination of skills and experience that brings together a good knowledge of the region and the marine environment. Most importantly they should have, and be able to maintain a neutral outlook through the project. If you are interested, or know someone who fits these requirements, do please encourage them to get in touch with us here at the Finding Sanctuary office, 01392 878327.
MPA planning progress
The first regional GIS layers are beginning to emerge from our MPA planning team. Working with Arc Editor, Louise and Shaun have produced a number of regional maps from data that they have been sourcing over the past months. We have bought a two year licence from Seazone which effectively gives us a digital chart for our whole region.
We also carried out some of our first Marxan test runs. Marxan is a decision support tool that was developed in Australia to help planners optimise reserve networks. It can handle large numbers of data layers, and help resolve problems that are beyond human intuition. Our MPA Planning co-ordinator, Louise Lieberknecht has a particular expertise in the use of Marxan and will begin to use this tool to help us plan the South West network.
Our website will also soon be able to display these maps. Eventually, anyone will be able to go to the Finding Sanctuary website, and once registered they will be able to see the developing data layers and potential MPA sites. We also hope to enable visitors to actually interactively input information through to us.
New developments
In development at the moment are some new funding proposals which will help us recruit a further four liaison officers and ensure that we can reach stakeholders across the region. In addition, we have submitted new proposals that will raise awareness amongst stakeholders and encourage them to participate in the project. We hope to have the final members of our team in place by April 2008.
That just leaves the Science Review as the last component that we need to have in place. At the moment, we see this developing in two strands:
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An independent review panel of academics from a wide range of disciplines including oceanography, economics and ecology.
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A series of around thematic workshops that will bring together a wider group of knowledgeable interest groups and associations to feed specific information on targets and priorities into the project.
“The fundamental principle of any conservation organisation must be: What will happen if we don’t act now?"
Don Macneish, President, Community of Arran Seabed Trust |
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