The Lyme Bay Story
Lyme Bay is one of Britain’s finest sites for marine wildlife. It consists of reefs which are a haven for corals, sponges and starfish. The reefs also support valuable seafood animals, including crab, lobster and scallops.
Some forms of fishing, such as potting and scallop-diving, cause no damage to the reefs, but Devon Wildlife Trust (WT) has shown that dredging (rather than diving) for scallops is extremely destructive. Pink seafans can take decades to develop, but dredging can destroy them in seconds.
Devon Wildlife Trust has been studying the reefs for 16 years and, along with The Wildlife Trusts, has campaigned for their protection. During the 1990s, Devon WT worked with the local fisherman and negotiated a voluntary agreement in 2001 to stop scallop dredging in two parts of the Bay. This agreement broke down last year demonstrating the need for a statutory approach. Natural England subsequently called upon DEFRA, with the backing of The Wildlife Trusts to introduce an Order to stop the damaging activity.
DEFRA consulted on three options for protecting the Bay’s marine wildlife and published a summary of responses in March 2008.
A sustainable future?
Homarus Ltd have published a report on Lyme Bay for The Wildlife Trusts. The report details research and analysis undertaken to estimate the likely economic value of different uses of a proposed conservation zone in Lyme Bay: including static gear fishing, recreational fishing and diving.
The report demonstrates that scalloping may provide a total income of between £162,000 and £187,000. By contrast, static commercial gear fishing (£177,000), angling (£247,000) and diving (£85,000) contribute a total of £509,000 to the region – more than double the amount for scalloping alone.
The Lyme Bay Report is now available as a text document. The full colour designed report will be available in the coming weeks, but for now if you wish to read more about the Lyme Bay story click here.
Latest Research
Survey work carried out since August 2006 has shown that pink sea fans are present in 52% of the 100 sites outside the areas subject to the voluntary agreement with SWIFA.
For further information and project reports carried out by Devon Wildlife Trust, please click here.