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Welcome to the first edition of the Finding Sanctuary e-newsletter.
Over the last 18 months many individuals have supported and guided the project development and this is our way of ensuring that you are kept up to date with the project as it progresses towards its launch.
It is now three years since the inception of the project idea. Legend has it that Chris Davis and Kate Bull from English Nature; together with Philippa Hoskins from Cornwall County Council developed the idea during a train journey just after the successful implementation of England’s first No-Take Zone at Lundy Island. From here the project gained support from English Nature’s Wider Environment Programme to begin the task of planning and financing their ambitious ideas for a regional network of MPAs across South West England.
There are a number of principles behind the project, and in particular we are clear on the necessity for strong protection for all sea life (not just the popular ones that we like to eat!). We are also firm in our belief that sites should be chosen with the close involvement of those that use the sea for livelihood or leisure. However, there is no tried and tested recipe for how networks of MPAs are chosen and the last 18 months have been focused on developing a plan that will provide a balance between capturing and using the opinions of stakeholders whilst ensuring that the project has a firm ecological foundation.
We have come up with a five-year plan that allows each MPA to be well founded with a clear purpose for ecological recovery and biodiversity protection, but also guided by the many fishermen, anglers and other sea-users who will want to ensure that they lose the least in the short-term, but gain the most in the future.
The Finding Sanctuary development phase is now complete and we are looking to get our network planning work underway at the start of 2007. Our primary focus is now on raising the funds to launch this part of the project and begin as soon as possible to make connections into the communities and lay the foundations for the UK's first regional network of MPAs.
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First funding committed to the project
The National Trust has agreed to provide £48,000 to the project over the next three years. The highly successful Neptune Coastline campaign enabled the purchase and management of 1120km of coastline around the UK for the benefit of people and wildlife. 676km of this coastline is in the South West, which reflects the degree of importance that the South West coast has for its diversity and national heritage. Phil Dyke, Property Manager for the Fal and Mid Cornwall has been a strong supporter of the project and told us ‘We are very keen to work with Finding Sanctuary to investigate the potential of extending our ethos of care and management beyond the shoreline’.
Cornwall County Council has also committed £60,000 from a Local Public Service Agreement Performance Award Grant. This is another very significant boost for the project’s funds and a strong sign of support from the Council.
Connecting with the project
Although the project hasn’t formally been launched yet, we are still keen to hear about any ideas and feedback you may have for us. You can reach us through our Project Officer, Tom Hooper at the following address:
Tom Hooper,
Finding Sanctuary,
Darts Farm,
Topsham,
Exeter EX3 0QH
01392 878327
tom.hooper@southwestfoodanddrink.com |
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New Board members
The Finding Sanctuary Project Board first met in July 2003 with members from Cornwall, Devon and Dorset County Council, English Nature and South West Food and Drink. Their primary role is to help manage and guide the project and ensure that it is well connected locally and nationally. We have recently been very pleased to welcome Charlotte Johnston from JNCC and Trevor Edwards representing the South West Wildlife Trusts.
Identifying Significant Areas
With funds from English Nature, Finding Sanctuary has joined up with the Environment Agency, RSPB and Cornwall County Council to begin work on a project to identify areas in Cornwall’s inshore waters that are known to be ecologically, socially or economically significant. A year’s work is now being carried out by Jenny Christie to connect with stakeholders and build up a picture of sites around Cornwall which are known to be important for marine wildlife. Jenny told us that ‘Accessing the wealth of local knowledge in Cornwall presents a challenge, but used alongside more formal data sets, this anecdotal information is vital in improving our understanding of inshore waters.’
Isle of Man
Finding Sanctuary Project Officer, Tom Hooper took a brief trip to the Isle of Man in June to meet various people who have been involved in the set up, monitoring and enforcement of the No-Take Zone. This small site in Port Erin Bay was closed for research purposes in 1989. The long series of data on changes to the scallop populations has been well recorded by the Port Erin Marine Laboratory. Dive surveys have shown a six-fold increase in density and a ten-fold increase in size of scallops inside the reserve since its closure. The concentration of fishing effort around the site and the support of most fishermen for the closure has provided important backing for the continuation of this site and possibly the designation of more. However, surveillance and enforcement has proved a real challenge for the local Sea Fisheries officers.
Meta-data catalogue
The hub of Finding Sanctuary’s planning for MPAs will be a GIS database of information ranging from habitats and spawning sites to biodiversity hotspots and fishing grounds. Over 70 different themes of data have been identified as being relevant for planning. However, this data is spread across a range of owners with many different formats and resolutions. An important first step that is currently being undertaken by the Devon Biodiversity Records Centre is to produce a Meta-Data catalogue which will identify all these data sets together with information on its owner and format. Finding Sanctuary has also linked up with the Government Marine Data Information Partnership and we have been identified as one of their pilot projects to determine how a broad range of data can be successfully incorporated and used.
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