The document summarizes the history and development of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in UK waters over the past 30 years. It discusses the evolution from individual sites in the 1980s and 1990s to developing networks of protected areas. The UK now has 96 Special Areas of Conservation designating 5.6% of UK seas, and new Marine Conservation Zones and national MPAs have been designated since 2013. Management of MPAs is challenging and often contentious due to pressures from fisheries. While progress has been made in scale, the designated areas may have limited effectiveness due to industry lobbying and complex feature-based management approaches.
The document summarizes the work of the Severn Estuary Partnership over the past 10 years and outlines its plans for the future. It discusses the partnership's successes in facilitating networking, running European projects, and producing publications. It then explains that the partnership will review and update the Severn Estuary Strategy from 2001 to reflect new policies and provide a strategic framework for the next 10 years. A draft vision and workshops seeking stakeholder input on principles and recommendations were held with the goal of finalizing an updated strategy in 2016 after wider consultation.
Dr Peter Miller, Plymouth Marine Laboratory - ShellEye: Satellite-based monit...IES / IAQM
This document discusses using satellite monitoring to help aquaculture farms. It describes how satellites can detect harmful algal blooms and monitor water quality, which provides early warnings for fish farms. Specific projects are monitoring salmon farms in Scotland and shellfish farms. Higher resolution sensors allow detecting blooms at smaller scales. Combining satellite data with models may improve bloom forecasting and monitoring water pollution from river plumes.
The document summarizes an industry-led strategy for brown crab management in Northern Ireland. It discusses the background of the brown crab fishery in Northern Ireland, the aims of developing a management strategy, proposed management measures consulted on with industry experts, next steps which include further consultation and developing a final management plan to be implemented in 2012. The strategy involves local management through area associations feeding into an overarching Northern Ireland Shellfish Council to deliver the management plan with support from scientists and the Department of Agriculture.
Our study establishes a baseline inventory of fish and aquatic invertebrate populations in Beaver Marsh, a previously unsampled wetland in Missouri. We assessed species richness and diversity using mini-fyke nets, bait traps, and light traps across five sampling units over multiple nights. The most common species found were typical for Missouri wetlands. Notably, we documented the presence of the white river crayfish in the wetland and North Fabius River basin, outside of its previously known range. This inventory provides novel data for area managers and researchers about the wetland's aquatic community.
Julia Lawson is a marine biologist with over 6 years of experience conducting research in fisheries and fish biology. She has a Master's degree from UBC and led a project in Malaysia assessing unregulated fisheries. Her experience includes field work in Canada, Bermuda, the Bahamas, Australia, and Malaysia studying topics like fishing impacts, coral reef ecology, and invasive lionfish. She currently works as a sessional instructor at UBC teaching invertebrate zoology.
Norah Parke (Killybegs Fishermen’s Organisation) - “Crab management”Shellfish Association
The document outlines details of the SAGB Conference that took place on May 22-23, 2012 at Fishmonger's Hall in London. It discusses the establishment of ACRUNET (Atlantic Crab Users Resource Network), a collaborative network of 15 partners across Europe representing the crab fishing and processing industries. The goals of ACRUNET are to improve cooperation and communication across the crab industry in Europe, develop a European brown crab quality standard, increase the economic viability of the crab supply chain, and conduct consumer education to increase market presence of brown crab.
Dr Stephen Bolt (Association of IFCA's) - "The new Association of IFCA’s"Shellfish Association
This document outlines the challenges and opportunities facing the new Association of IFCAs (Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authorities). It discusses the step change in marine management towards more integrated and ecosystem-based approaches required by initiatives like the revised Common Fisheries Policy, establishment of a network of Marine Protected Areas, and achievement of good environmental status under the Marine Strategy Framework Directive by 2020. The Association of IFCAs aims to help the regional IFCAs develop effective national leadership on fisheries and conservation management in line with their vision of sustainable marine environments and fisheries.
The document summarizes the work of the Severn Estuary Partnership over the past 10 years and outlines its plans for the future. It discusses the partnership's successes in facilitating networking, running European projects, and producing publications. It then explains that the partnership will review and update the Severn Estuary Strategy from 2001 to reflect new policies and provide a strategic framework for the next 10 years. A draft vision and workshops seeking stakeholder input on principles and recommendations were held with the goal of finalizing an updated strategy in 2016 after wider consultation.
Dr Peter Miller, Plymouth Marine Laboratory - ShellEye: Satellite-based monit...IES / IAQM
This document discusses using satellite monitoring to help aquaculture farms. It describes how satellites can detect harmful algal blooms and monitor water quality, which provides early warnings for fish farms. Specific projects are monitoring salmon farms in Scotland and shellfish farms. Higher resolution sensors allow detecting blooms at smaller scales. Combining satellite data with models may improve bloom forecasting and monitoring water pollution from river plumes.
The document summarizes an industry-led strategy for brown crab management in Northern Ireland. It discusses the background of the brown crab fishery in Northern Ireland, the aims of developing a management strategy, proposed management measures consulted on with industry experts, next steps which include further consultation and developing a final management plan to be implemented in 2012. The strategy involves local management through area associations feeding into an overarching Northern Ireland Shellfish Council to deliver the management plan with support from scientists and the Department of Agriculture.
Our study establishes a baseline inventory of fish and aquatic invertebrate populations in Beaver Marsh, a previously unsampled wetland in Missouri. We assessed species richness and diversity using mini-fyke nets, bait traps, and light traps across five sampling units over multiple nights. The most common species found were typical for Missouri wetlands. Notably, we documented the presence of the white river crayfish in the wetland and North Fabius River basin, outside of its previously known range. This inventory provides novel data for area managers and researchers about the wetland's aquatic community.
Julia Lawson is a marine biologist with over 6 years of experience conducting research in fisheries and fish biology. She has a Master's degree from UBC and led a project in Malaysia assessing unregulated fisheries. Her experience includes field work in Canada, Bermuda, the Bahamas, Australia, and Malaysia studying topics like fishing impacts, coral reef ecology, and invasive lionfish. She currently works as a sessional instructor at UBC teaching invertebrate zoology.
Norah Parke (Killybegs Fishermen’s Organisation) - “Crab management”Shellfish Association
The document outlines details of the SAGB Conference that took place on May 22-23, 2012 at Fishmonger's Hall in London. It discusses the establishment of ACRUNET (Atlantic Crab Users Resource Network), a collaborative network of 15 partners across Europe representing the crab fishing and processing industries. The goals of ACRUNET are to improve cooperation and communication across the crab industry in Europe, develop a European brown crab quality standard, increase the economic viability of the crab supply chain, and conduct consumer education to increase market presence of brown crab.
Dr Stephen Bolt (Association of IFCA's) - "The new Association of IFCA’s"Shellfish Association
This document outlines the challenges and opportunities facing the new Association of IFCAs (Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authorities). It discusses the step change in marine management towards more integrated and ecosystem-based approaches required by initiatives like the revised Common Fisheries Policy, establishment of a network of Marine Protected Areas, and achievement of good environmental status under the Marine Strategy Framework Directive by 2020. The Association of IFCAs aims to help the regional IFCAs develop effective national leadership on fisheries and conservation management in line with their vision of sustainable marine environments and fisheries.
The document discusses engaging various groups such as residents, landowners, young people, volunteers, and ethnic minorities in landscape designations and protected areas in Wales. It provides examples of engagement activities like the Carreglwyd Forest Festival, geocaching at Jubilee Tower, Moel Famau, and Welsh baccalaureate student volunteers helping with an AONB clean-up. It closes with a note of caution.
The John Muir Trust is a UK organization that aims to protect and enhance wild land areas. It owns 9 key wild land areas and works with communities to manage land. The Trust defines wild land as large, scenic areas with minimal human development that have ecological and spiritual value. Wild land faces threats from infrastructure like power lines and wind farms. The Trust advocates for stronger protections like new designations and expanded national parks. It discusses challenges around different administrations not having joined-up thinking on environment and development policies. The Trust aims to ensure wild places are valued and protected for future generations.
This document discusses United Kingdom protected areas and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs). It addresses who designates AONBs, the differences between conservation approaches, and how AONBs involve both natural and human factors. Specifically, it notes that AONBs focus on landscape, people, and facilitating natural and human interactions. It also discusses AONB governance models and how the areas fit into protected area categories.
Scottish Natural Heritage published a document about engaging with people in Scotland's protected areas through improved understanding and communications. The director of operations at Scottish Natural Heritage outlined their goals of maintaining high quality and resilient natural landscapes and nature that deliver public value, make Scotland a better place, and contribute to the economy by having more people experience, enjoy and value nature.
This document discusses how protected areas can help address global challenges like climate change. It outlines several key ways that protected areas and ecosystems can act as part of the solution:
1) Protected areas can enhance resilience to climate change by storing carbon, capturing carbon dioxide, and protecting ecosystems to buffer climate impacts and maintain essential services.
2) Establishing large, well-connected protected area networks that represent diverse ecosystems can help conserve biodiversity and support climate adaptation and mitigation.
3) Improving protected area management, financing, governance, and participation can help protected areas achieve conservation objectives and be integrated into broader landscape planning to meet global challenges.
The document discusses categories of protected areas on the National Trust estate in the UK. It notes that the Trust owns 255,000 hectares of land, including 97,000 hectares designated as Sites of Special Scientific Interest. It questions whether some Trust sites meet the criteria for certain protected area categories and explores how to best apply protected area concepts strategically and consider protection outside Trust boundaries.
Natural England advises the UK government on designating protected areas and manages some of these areas. They are working to establish an ecological network of protected sites that are larger, more connected, and better able to help wildlife adapt to climate change. Some key programs include Nature Improvement Areas, which provide funding to connect and restore habitats, and marine conservation zones to protect marine environments.
This document provides an agenda and overview for a conference on protected areas in the UK and internationally. The conference covers several sessions on topics like the importance and challenges of protected areas globally and in the UK, best practices and innovations, and perspectives from UK nature conservation agencies. It highlights keynote speakers and panels discussing issues such as assigning protected area categories, pressures on national parks, landscape-scale conservation, and marine protected areas. The agenda also includes an annual general meeting for the IUCN National Committee UK to discuss its annual review, elections, finances, and preparations for an upcoming world conservation congress.
This document discusses how protected areas can help address global challenges like climate change. It outlines how protected areas store and capture carbon, enhance ecosystem resilience, and provide essential services. The document then discusses how to better design protected area systems to be ecologically representative and well-connected. It also emphasizes the need for improved management capacity, governance, and financing to effectively manage protected areas. The overall message is that protected areas can play a key role in climate change mitigation and adaptation if they are better integrated into land use planning and protected area networks are expanded and better managed.
This document analyzes data from a citizen science marine survey program called Seasearch to describe the spatial distribution of pink sea fan colonies in southwest UK coastal waters from 2001-2012. It finds that pink sea fan colonies are concentrated in some areas but also exist outside of existing Marine Protected Areas, potentially putting them at risk from bottom-towed fishing activities. The analysis demonstrates how organized citizen science data can help inform broad scale patterns of biodiversity and assesses whether the locations of pink sea fans match up with areas that have legal protection from bottom-towed fishing gears.
This document provides an overview of marine protected area (MPA) networks around the world and in the UK. International case studies of MPA networks in West Hawaii, Australia, the Chagos Islands, and South Africa demonstrate a range of MPA types and functions. The development of the UK MPA network is still ongoing, with sites being identified and key organizations like the new Marine Management Organization and agencies in England and Scotland working to establish the network and management plans.
C5.07: Blue Carbon: Current status of Australian estimates and future model p...Blue Planet Symposium
Blue carbon is becoming widely recognised as a critical component of all national carbon accounting schemes. Australia has invested heavily in collating existing estimates of blue carbon stocks and is currently targeting important yet poorly represented habitats around its extensive coastline. Much of this effort is linked with the CSIRO-funded Coastal Carbon Cluster. This 3-year program has developed and validated many approaches to blue carbon estimation and is now able to showcase best-practice methods. The activities of the Cluster have been used as a model for international efforts to develop global estimates, as well as national blue carbon inventories via the International Blue Carbon Scientific Working Group. Finally, static estimates of carbon can only describe the current carbon stock at a specific location; models can extrapolate these relationships into unsampled regions, as well as estimate carbon stock into the future given changes to climate as well as alterations to the geochemistry/hydrodynamics of a specific habitat.
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING AROUND DEEP-SEA MINING SITESiQHub
This document discusses recommendations for environmental monitoring around deep-sea mining sites based on a discussion with international partners. It addresses international regulations for monitoring the deep-sea mining industry and the use of laboratory experiments and numerical modeling for monitoring. Key points discussed include defining best available scientific evidence, techniques, and practices. Visualizations show potential areas impacted by mining plumes and how monitoring the properties, indicator taxa, biological tolerances, and timescales of plumes is important.
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING AROUND DEEP-SEA MINING SITESiQHub
This document discusses recommendations for environmental monitoring around deep-sea mining sites based on a discussion with international partners. It addresses international regulations for monitoring the deep-sea mining industry and the use of laboratory experiments and numerical modeling for monitoring. Key points discussed include defining best available scientific evidence, techniques, and practices. Factors like plume properties, indicator taxa, biological tolerances, and timescales of measurements for monitoring plume impact are also addressed.
1. Reef shark populations in Palau's shark sanctuary showed large differences, with densities over 10 times higher in the Main Island Group compared to the remote Southwest Islands.
2. Shark densities were strongly negatively correlated with the density of derelict fishing gear on reefs, suggesting fishing impacts shark populations.
3. Sharks in the remote Southwest Islands were significantly smaller on average, further indicating fishing effects on these populations. Surveillance and enforcement are needed to effectively protect sharks within the sanctuary.
This document summarizes England's progress toward establishing a network of marine protected areas as required by law. It discusses the designation of existing European sites and development of new marine conservation zones through stakeholder engagement. Key challenges addressed include the evidence base required, representation of stakeholders, and determining appropriate management measures for protected areas.
The document summarizes a report on the Mamanuca Coral Reef Conservation Project conducted in Fiji in 2001. The project aimed to assess the health of local reefs and improve environmental awareness. Surveys found widespread impacts like coral bleaching had degraded the reefs. A habitat map showed that reef habitats covered only 70 km^2 of the 1826 km^2 project area. Most sites were in poor condition with low coral cover. The project recommends expanding marine reserves to 20% of reefs to protect biodiversity and fisheries while reducing threats to reef health.
Wavedragon ses presentation (b2) cork hand out with backup slidesErik Friis-Madsen
The document summarizes a joint project between Wave Dragon and Seaweed Energy Solutions to develop a combined wave energy converter farm and seaweed cultivation operation in Wales, UK. The consortium involves Wave Dragon, which develops wave energy technology, Seaweed Energy Solutions, a seaweed innovation company, and the Bellona Foundation, a non-profit environmental organization. The project aims to establish a 1 MW wave farm paired with an initial 80 tonne per year seaweed farm, and expand to larger commercial scale operations co-locating 45 Wave Dragon converters generating 180 MW paired with a 20,000 tonne per year seaweed farm. The combined operation is estimated to have significantly lower costs than individual wave or seaweed farms alone.
This document summarizes a presentation given about the Wallasea Island Wild Coast Project led by the RSPB. The project involves importing 7.5 million cubic meters of inert construction waste from the Crossrail project to create new coastal habitats including mudflats, saltmarshes, and saline lagoons on Wallasea Island. It aims to compensate for habitat losses, reduce flood risks, provide public access to nature, and demonstrate coastal adaptation to climate change. Work began in 2009 and involves phased construction of sea defenses and habitats over multiple years.
The document summarizes a meeting between the proponents of the Mrima Hill Niobium and Rare Earth Mining Project and the National Environment Management Authority of Kenya (NEMA). The objectives of the meeting were to discuss NEMA's technical questions about the project's Environmental and Social Impact Assessment, address other technical queries, review recent public feedback, and assist the project's technical advisory committee. The project team provided detailed responses and reports addressing NEMA's questions regarding studies on colobus monkeys, archaeology, radiation levels, public participation, environmental education programs, degazettment notices, and exploration licenses.
The document summarizes a meeting between the proponents of the Mrima Hill Niobium and Rare Earth Mining Project and the National Environment Management Authority of Kenya (NEMA). The objectives of the meeting were to discuss NEMA's technical questions about the project's Environmental and Social Impact Assessment, address other technical queries, review recent public feedback, and assist the project's technical advisory committee. The project team provided responses, reports, and evidence to NEMA's questions regarding studies on colobus monkeys, archaeology, radiation levels, public participation, environmental education, degazettment notices, and exploration licenses.
The document discusses engaging various groups such as residents, landowners, young people, volunteers, and ethnic minorities in landscape designations and protected areas in Wales. It provides examples of engagement activities like the Carreglwyd Forest Festival, geocaching at Jubilee Tower, Moel Famau, and Welsh baccalaureate student volunteers helping with an AONB clean-up. It closes with a note of caution.
The John Muir Trust is a UK organization that aims to protect and enhance wild land areas. It owns 9 key wild land areas and works with communities to manage land. The Trust defines wild land as large, scenic areas with minimal human development that have ecological and spiritual value. Wild land faces threats from infrastructure like power lines and wind farms. The Trust advocates for stronger protections like new designations and expanded national parks. It discusses challenges around different administrations not having joined-up thinking on environment and development policies. The Trust aims to ensure wild places are valued and protected for future generations.
This document discusses United Kingdom protected areas and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs). It addresses who designates AONBs, the differences between conservation approaches, and how AONBs involve both natural and human factors. Specifically, it notes that AONBs focus on landscape, people, and facilitating natural and human interactions. It also discusses AONB governance models and how the areas fit into protected area categories.
Scottish Natural Heritage published a document about engaging with people in Scotland's protected areas through improved understanding and communications. The director of operations at Scottish Natural Heritage outlined their goals of maintaining high quality and resilient natural landscapes and nature that deliver public value, make Scotland a better place, and contribute to the economy by having more people experience, enjoy and value nature.
This document discusses how protected areas can help address global challenges like climate change. It outlines several key ways that protected areas and ecosystems can act as part of the solution:
1) Protected areas can enhance resilience to climate change by storing carbon, capturing carbon dioxide, and protecting ecosystems to buffer climate impacts and maintain essential services.
2) Establishing large, well-connected protected area networks that represent diverse ecosystems can help conserve biodiversity and support climate adaptation and mitigation.
3) Improving protected area management, financing, governance, and participation can help protected areas achieve conservation objectives and be integrated into broader landscape planning to meet global challenges.
The document discusses categories of protected areas on the National Trust estate in the UK. It notes that the Trust owns 255,000 hectares of land, including 97,000 hectares designated as Sites of Special Scientific Interest. It questions whether some Trust sites meet the criteria for certain protected area categories and explores how to best apply protected area concepts strategically and consider protection outside Trust boundaries.
Natural England advises the UK government on designating protected areas and manages some of these areas. They are working to establish an ecological network of protected sites that are larger, more connected, and better able to help wildlife adapt to climate change. Some key programs include Nature Improvement Areas, which provide funding to connect and restore habitats, and marine conservation zones to protect marine environments.
This document provides an agenda and overview for a conference on protected areas in the UK and internationally. The conference covers several sessions on topics like the importance and challenges of protected areas globally and in the UK, best practices and innovations, and perspectives from UK nature conservation agencies. It highlights keynote speakers and panels discussing issues such as assigning protected area categories, pressures on national parks, landscape-scale conservation, and marine protected areas. The agenda also includes an annual general meeting for the IUCN National Committee UK to discuss its annual review, elections, finances, and preparations for an upcoming world conservation congress.
This document discusses how protected areas can help address global challenges like climate change. It outlines how protected areas store and capture carbon, enhance ecosystem resilience, and provide essential services. The document then discusses how to better design protected area systems to be ecologically representative and well-connected. It also emphasizes the need for improved management capacity, governance, and financing to effectively manage protected areas. The overall message is that protected areas can play a key role in climate change mitigation and adaptation if they are better integrated into land use planning and protected area networks are expanded and better managed.
This document analyzes data from a citizen science marine survey program called Seasearch to describe the spatial distribution of pink sea fan colonies in southwest UK coastal waters from 2001-2012. It finds that pink sea fan colonies are concentrated in some areas but also exist outside of existing Marine Protected Areas, potentially putting them at risk from bottom-towed fishing activities. The analysis demonstrates how organized citizen science data can help inform broad scale patterns of biodiversity and assesses whether the locations of pink sea fans match up with areas that have legal protection from bottom-towed fishing gears.
This document provides an overview of marine protected area (MPA) networks around the world and in the UK. International case studies of MPA networks in West Hawaii, Australia, the Chagos Islands, and South Africa demonstrate a range of MPA types and functions. The development of the UK MPA network is still ongoing, with sites being identified and key organizations like the new Marine Management Organization and agencies in England and Scotland working to establish the network and management plans.
C5.07: Blue Carbon: Current status of Australian estimates and future model p...Blue Planet Symposium
Blue carbon is becoming widely recognised as a critical component of all national carbon accounting schemes. Australia has invested heavily in collating existing estimates of blue carbon stocks and is currently targeting important yet poorly represented habitats around its extensive coastline. Much of this effort is linked with the CSIRO-funded Coastal Carbon Cluster. This 3-year program has developed and validated many approaches to blue carbon estimation and is now able to showcase best-practice methods. The activities of the Cluster have been used as a model for international efforts to develop global estimates, as well as national blue carbon inventories via the International Blue Carbon Scientific Working Group. Finally, static estimates of carbon can only describe the current carbon stock at a specific location; models can extrapolate these relationships into unsampled regions, as well as estimate carbon stock into the future given changes to climate as well as alterations to the geochemistry/hydrodynamics of a specific habitat.
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING AROUND DEEP-SEA MINING SITESiQHub
This document discusses recommendations for environmental monitoring around deep-sea mining sites based on a discussion with international partners. It addresses international regulations for monitoring the deep-sea mining industry and the use of laboratory experiments and numerical modeling for monitoring. Key points discussed include defining best available scientific evidence, techniques, and practices. Visualizations show potential areas impacted by mining plumes and how monitoring the properties, indicator taxa, biological tolerances, and timescales of plumes is important.
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING AROUND DEEP-SEA MINING SITESiQHub
This document discusses recommendations for environmental monitoring around deep-sea mining sites based on a discussion with international partners. It addresses international regulations for monitoring the deep-sea mining industry and the use of laboratory experiments and numerical modeling for monitoring. Key points discussed include defining best available scientific evidence, techniques, and practices. Factors like plume properties, indicator taxa, biological tolerances, and timescales of measurements for monitoring plume impact are also addressed.
1. Reef shark populations in Palau's shark sanctuary showed large differences, with densities over 10 times higher in the Main Island Group compared to the remote Southwest Islands.
2. Shark densities were strongly negatively correlated with the density of derelict fishing gear on reefs, suggesting fishing impacts shark populations.
3. Sharks in the remote Southwest Islands were significantly smaller on average, further indicating fishing effects on these populations. Surveillance and enforcement are needed to effectively protect sharks within the sanctuary.
This document summarizes England's progress toward establishing a network of marine protected areas as required by law. It discusses the designation of existing European sites and development of new marine conservation zones through stakeholder engagement. Key challenges addressed include the evidence base required, representation of stakeholders, and determining appropriate management measures for protected areas.
The document summarizes a report on the Mamanuca Coral Reef Conservation Project conducted in Fiji in 2001. The project aimed to assess the health of local reefs and improve environmental awareness. Surveys found widespread impacts like coral bleaching had degraded the reefs. A habitat map showed that reef habitats covered only 70 km^2 of the 1826 km^2 project area. Most sites were in poor condition with low coral cover. The project recommends expanding marine reserves to 20% of reefs to protect biodiversity and fisheries while reducing threats to reef health.
Wavedragon ses presentation (b2) cork hand out with backup slidesErik Friis-Madsen
The document summarizes a joint project between Wave Dragon and Seaweed Energy Solutions to develop a combined wave energy converter farm and seaweed cultivation operation in Wales, UK. The consortium involves Wave Dragon, which develops wave energy technology, Seaweed Energy Solutions, a seaweed innovation company, and the Bellona Foundation, a non-profit environmental organization. The project aims to establish a 1 MW wave farm paired with an initial 80 tonne per year seaweed farm, and expand to larger commercial scale operations co-locating 45 Wave Dragon converters generating 180 MW paired with a 20,000 tonne per year seaweed farm. The combined operation is estimated to have significantly lower costs than individual wave or seaweed farms alone.
This document summarizes a presentation given about the Wallasea Island Wild Coast Project led by the RSPB. The project involves importing 7.5 million cubic meters of inert construction waste from the Crossrail project to create new coastal habitats including mudflats, saltmarshes, and saline lagoons on Wallasea Island. It aims to compensate for habitat losses, reduce flood risks, provide public access to nature, and demonstrate coastal adaptation to climate change. Work began in 2009 and involves phased construction of sea defenses and habitats over multiple years.
The document summarizes a meeting between the proponents of the Mrima Hill Niobium and Rare Earth Mining Project and the National Environment Management Authority of Kenya (NEMA). The objectives of the meeting were to discuss NEMA's technical questions about the project's Environmental and Social Impact Assessment, address other technical queries, review recent public feedback, and assist the project's technical advisory committee. The project team provided detailed responses and reports addressing NEMA's questions regarding studies on colobus monkeys, archaeology, radiation levels, public participation, environmental education programs, degazettment notices, and exploration licenses.
The document summarizes a meeting between the proponents of the Mrima Hill Niobium and Rare Earth Mining Project and the National Environment Management Authority of Kenya (NEMA). The objectives of the meeting were to discuss NEMA's technical questions about the project's Environmental and Social Impact Assessment, address other technical queries, review recent public feedback, and assist the project's technical advisory committee. The project team provided responses, reports, and evidence to NEMA's questions regarding studies on colobus monkeys, archaeology, radiation levels, public participation, environmental education, degazettment notices, and exploration licenses.
Fishing in the antipodes. Fishers and fishes in two opposite polesPablo Pita Orduna
This document summarizes research on fishing in the Southern Ocean and Western Australia. It describes a research group studying marine resources and fisheries using multidisciplinary approaches. It also discusses international exchange between the group and Australia on managing fisheries like abalone and razor clams through tools that involve stakeholders. Specific projects examined include mapping fishing grounds in Galicia, Spain and developing data-poor harvest strategies based on spawning potential ratio.
2012 07 The Severn Estuary European Marine Site Dr. Joe Green, Natural EnglandSevernEstuary
The document provides an overview of the Severn Estuary European Marine Site, which is located along the border of England and Wales. It describes the estuary's geography and large tidal range. It also discusses the various legislative designations that provide protection to the estuary, including special areas for conservation, special protection areas for birds, and sites of special scientific interest. Finally, it outlines the role of Natural England in advising on marine conservation in the UK and current projects related to development proposals in the Severn Estuary.
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING AROUND DEEP-SEA MINING SITESiQHub
The document discusses recommendations for environmental monitoring around deep-sea mining sites. It recommends:
1) Understanding the combination of laboratory experiments and numerical modeling to monitor aspects like plume generation and sediment dispersion from mining activities.
2) Early modeling suggested plumes from mining may impact areas 100 km away, and this was used to design buffer zones, but most current information is theoretical or from small experiments.
3) International organizations like the ISA call for using best available scientific evidence, techniques, and practices to monitor environmental impacts, but definitions and applications continue to be discussed.
4) Monitoring key properties of plumes like particle size and distribution is important to understand impacts and restoration timelines.
Marine biodiversity is declining globally at an unprecedented rate due to threats such as habitat loss, overexploitation of fish and other marine species, and invasive species. Currently only about 2.4% of the ocean is protected despite goals to increase protected areas to 10% by 2020. International agreements like the Convention on Biological Diversity have established targets and indicators to monitor biodiversity loss and guide conservation efforts, but global and EU targets to reduce biodiversity loss by 2010 were not met. Ongoing work includes identifying ecologically and biologically significant areas for enhanced protection and monitoring trends in species distributions and abundances to inform policymaking.
1) The document evaluates the management effectiveness of the National Natural Park Rosario and San Bernardo Corals marine protected area in Colombia using biological, socioeconomic, and governance indicators.
2) Biological surveys found low coral cover and fish diversity/abundance both inside and outside the MPA, suggesting limited effectiveness of current management. The reefs also showed signs of degradation.
3) Socioeconomic and governance analyses revealed low incomes for local communities, few opportunities, weak governance, and overexploitation of resources inside the MPA. This reflected low adaptive capacity to comply with conservation rules.
Applying an ecosystem-based approach to fisheries management: focus on seamou...Iwl Pcu
Carl Gustaf Lundin
IUCN (Indian Ocean Seamounts)
Presentation given during the 5th GEF Biennial International Waters Conference in Cairns, Australia (during the pre-conference workshop marine ecosystems, Global Change and Marine Resources).
Natural England advises the UK government on designating protected areas and manages some of these areas. They are working to establish an ecological network of protected sites that are larger, more connected, and better able to help wildlife adapt to climate change. Some key programs include Nature Improvement Areas, which provide funding to connect and restore habitats, and marine conservation zones to protect marine environments.
This document provides an agenda for a conference on protected areas. The conference will discuss the importance and value of protected areas globally and in the UK. It will examine challenges and pressures facing protected areas, including those in national parks and landscapes. The conference will also discuss best practices, innovations, and opportunities regarding protected area management. It will feature perspectives on protected areas from UK nature conservation agencies. The document schedules sessions on these topics with multiple speakers as well as questions, breaks, and an annual general meeting for the IUCN National Committee UK.
This document discusses United Kingdom protected areas and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs). It addresses who designates AONBs, the differences between conservation approaches, and how AONBs involve both natural and human factors. Specifically, it notes that AONBs focus on landscape, people, and facilitating natural and human interactions. It also discusses AONB governance models and how the areas fit into protected area categories.
The document summarizes protected areas in the UK and provides context on international conventions and targets for protected area coverage. Some key points:
1) The UK has designated over 6,600 Sites of Special Scientific Interest and hundreds of other protected areas covering around 8% of land and inland water.
2) The UK Overseas Territories include very large Marine Protected Areas around places like South Georgia and the Chagos Archipelago.
3) Protected areas must be designed and managed as ecologically coherent networks to effectively conserve biodiversity in the face of environmental change.
The document discusses various pressures and approaches related to national parks and areas of outstanding natural beauty. It mentions development pressures, proposed housing and railway projects, and CAP reform's impact on the environment. It also addresses issues like climate change, landscape-scale connections, bracken control, ecosystem services, and balancing natural beauty with numbers and evidence-based approaches.
This document discusses landscape-scale conservation and the role of protected areas. It notes that climate change will increase pressure on biodiversity, so protected areas need to be more resilient and help species adapt. Protected areas will remain crucial for conservation by providing refuges for moving species. Landscape-scale conservation should use protected areas as anchors and work to increase habitat diversity, reverse fragmentation, and boost connectivity in surrounding areas. The legal framework of EU directives supports both site-based and broader landscape conservation efforts.
This document discusses biodiversity offsetting as a way to compensate for environmental impacts from development. It proposes establishing a market for conservation credits where developers can purchase credits from protected area receptor sites to offset residual impacts. This would allow for biodiversity gains through funding management of protected areas. Metrics and monitoring systems would be needed to establish conservation credits and assess development impacts and habitat gains. Establishing these biodiversity offsetting programs could generate significant funding for protected areas on a national scale.
The document discusses the global increase in protected areas from 1,000 in 1962 to over 160,000 in 2010. It explains the IUCN categories for protected areas and governance types, and how the UK currently has incomplete and inaccurate data on protected areas according to these international standards. The Putting Nature on the Map project aims to apply the 2008 IUCN guidelines to identify protected areas in the UK and provide verified data to international databases. Phase 1 developed a handbook interpreting the guidelines for the UK context, and Phase 2 will involve collecting updated protected areas data from agencies and organizations for review against the standards.
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Manage and optimize your license adoption and consumption with SAM4U, an SAP free customer software asset management tool.
SAM4U, an SAP complimentary software asset management tool for customers, delivers a detailed and well-structured overview of license inventory and usage with a user-friendly interface. We offer a hosted, cost-effective, and performance-optimized SAM4U setup in the Skybuffer Cloud environment. You retain ownership of the system and data, while we manage the ABAP 7.58 infrastructure, ensuring fixed Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and exceptional services through the SAP Fiori interface.
HCL Notes und Domino Lizenzkostenreduzierung in der Welt von DLAUpanagenda
Webinar Recording: https://www.panagenda.com/webinars/hcl-notes-und-domino-lizenzkostenreduzierung-in-der-welt-von-dlau/
DLAU und die Lizenzen nach dem CCB- und CCX-Modell sind für viele in der HCL-Community seit letztem Jahr ein heißes Thema. Als Notes- oder Domino-Kunde haben Sie vielleicht mit unerwartet hohen Benutzerzahlen und Lizenzgebühren zu kämpfen. Sie fragen sich vielleicht, wie diese neue Art der Lizenzierung funktioniert und welchen Nutzen sie Ihnen bringt. Vor allem wollen Sie sicherlich Ihr Budget einhalten und Kosten sparen, wo immer möglich. Das verstehen wir und wir möchten Ihnen dabei helfen!
Wir erklären Ihnen, wie Sie häufige Konfigurationsprobleme lösen können, die dazu führen können, dass mehr Benutzer gezählt werden als nötig, und wie Sie überflüssige oder ungenutzte Konten identifizieren und entfernen können, um Geld zu sparen. Es gibt auch einige Ansätze, die zu unnötigen Ausgaben führen können, z. B. wenn ein Personendokument anstelle eines Mail-Ins für geteilte Mailboxen verwendet wird. Wir zeigen Ihnen solche Fälle und deren Lösungen. Und natürlich erklären wir Ihnen das neue Lizenzmodell.
Nehmen Sie an diesem Webinar teil, bei dem HCL-Ambassador Marc Thomas und Gastredner Franz Walder Ihnen diese neue Welt näherbringen. Es vermittelt Ihnen die Tools und das Know-how, um den Überblick zu bewahren. Sie werden in der Lage sein, Ihre Kosten durch eine optimierte Domino-Konfiguration zu reduzieren und auch in Zukunft gering zu halten.
Diese Themen werden behandelt
- Reduzierung der Lizenzkosten durch Auffinden und Beheben von Fehlkonfigurationen und überflüssigen Konten
- Wie funktionieren CCB- und CCX-Lizenzen wirklich?
- Verstehen des DLAU-Tools und wie man es am besten nutzt
- Tipps für häufige Problembereiche, wie z. B. Team-Postfächer, Funktions-/Testbenutzer usw.
- Praxisbeispiele und Best Practices zum sofortigen Umsetzen
How information systems are built or acquired puts information, which is what they should be about, in a secondary place. Our language adapted accordingly, and we no longer talk about information systems but applications. Applications evolved in a way to break data into diverse fragments, tightly coupled with applications and expensive to integrate. The result is technical debt, which is re-paid by taking even bigger "loans", resulting in an ever-increasing technical debt. Software engineering and procurement practices work in sync with market forces to maintain this trend. This talk demonstrates how natural this situation is. The question is: can something be done to reverse the trend?
For the full video of this presentation, please visit: https://www.edge-ai-vision.com/2024/06/temporal-event-neural-networks-a-more-efficient-alternative-to-the-transformer-a-presentation-from-brainchip/
Chris Jones, Director of Product Management at BrainChip , presents the “Temporal Event Neural Networks: A More Efficient Alternative to the Transformer” tutorial at the May 2024 Embedded Vision Summit.
The expansion of AI services necessitates enhanced computational capabilities on edge devices. Temporal Event Neural Networks (TENNs), developed by BrainChip, represent a novel and highly efficient state-space network. TENNs demonstrate exceptional proficiency in handling multi-dimensional streaming data, facilitating advancements in object detection, action recognition, speech enhancement and language model/sequence generation. Through the utilization of polynomial-based continuous convolutions, TENNs streamline models, expedite training processes and significantly diminish memory requirements, achieving notable reductions of up to 50x in parameters and 5,000x in energy consumption compared to prevailing methodologies like transformers.
Integration with BrainChip’s Akida neuromorphic hardware IP further enhances TENNs’ capabilities, enabling the realization of highly capable, portable and passively cooled edge devices. This presentation delves into the technical innovations underlying TENNs, presents real-world benchmarks, and elucidates how this cutting-edge approach is positioned to revolutionize edge AI across diverse applications.
Connector Corner: Seamlessly power UiPath Apps, GenAI with prebuilt connectorsDianaGray10
Join us to learn how UiPath Apps can directly and easily interact with prebuilt connectors via Integration Service--including Salesforce, ServiceNow, Open GenAI, and more.
The best part is you can achieve this without building a custom workflow! Say goodbye to the hassle of using separate automations to call APIs. By seamlessly integrating within App Studio, you can now easily streamline your workflow, while gaining direct access to our Connector Catalog of popular applications.
We’ll discuss and demo the benefits of UiPath Apps and connectors including:
Creating a compelling user experience for any software, without the limitations of APIs.
Accelerating the app creation process, saving time and effort
Enjoying high-performance CRUD (create, read, update, delete) operations, for
seamless data management.
Speakers:
Russell Alfeche, Technology Leader, RPA at qBotic and UiPath MVP
Charlie Greenberg, host
AppSec PNW: Android and iOS Application Security with MobSFAjin Abraham
Mobile Security Framework - MobSF is a free and open source automated mobile application security testing environment designed to help security engineers, researchers, developers, and penetration testers to identify security vulnerabilities, malicious behaviours and privacy concerns in mobile applications using static and dynamic analysis. It supports all the popular mobile application binaries and source code formats built for Android and iOS devices. In addition to automated security assessment, it also offers an interactive testing environment to build and execute scenario based test/fuzz cases against the application.
This talk covers:
Using MobSF for static analysis of mobile applications.
Interactive dynamic security assessment of Android and iOS applications.
Solving Mobile app CTF challenges.
Reverse engineering and runtime analysis of Mobile malware.
How to shift left and integrate MobSF/mobsfscan SAST and DAST in your build pipeline.
Programming Foundation Models with DSPy - Meetup SlidesZilliz
Prompting language models is hard, while programming language models is easy. In this talk, I will discuss the state-of-the-art framework DSPy for programming foundation models with its powerful optimizers and runtime constraint system.
How to Interpret Trends in the Kalyan Rajdhani Mix Chart.pdfChart Kalyan
A Mix Chart displays historical data of numbers in a graphical or tabular form. The Kalyan Rajdhani Mix Chart specifically shows the results of a sequence of numbers over different periods.
Conversational agents, or chatbots, are increasingly used to access all sorts of services using natural language. While open-domain chatbots - like ChatGPT - can converse on any topic, task-oriented chatbots - the focus of this paper - are designed for specific tasks, like booking a flight, obtaining customer support, or setting an appointment. Like any other software, task-oriented chatbots need to be properly tested, usually by defining and executing test scenarios (i.e., sequences of user-chatbot interactions). However, there is currently a lack of methods to quantify the completeness and strength of such test scenarios, which can lead to low-quality tests, and hence to buggy chatbots.
To fill this gap, we propose adapting mutation testing (MuT) for task-oriented chatbots. To this end, we introduce a set of mutation operators that emulate faults in chatbot designs, an architecture that enables MuT on chatbots built using heterogeneous technologies, and a practical realisation as an Eclipse plugin. Moreover, we evaluate the applicability, effectiveness and efficiency of our approach on open-source chatbots, with promising results.
Northern Engraving | Nameplate Manufacturing Process - 2024Northern Engraving
Manufacturing custom quality metal nameplates and badges involves several standard operations. Processes include sheet prep, lithography, screening, coating, punch press and inspection. All decoration is completed in the flat sheet with adhesive and tooling operations following. The possibilities for creating unique durable nameplates are endless. How will you create your brand identity? We can help!
Ivanti’s Patch Tuesday breakdown goes beyond patching your applications and brings you the intelligence and guidance needed to prioritize where to focus your attention first. Catch early analysis on our Ivanti blog, then join industry expert Chris Goettl for the Patch Tuesday Webinar Event. There we’ll do a deep dive into each of the bulletins and give guidance on the risks associated with the newly-identified vulnerabilities.
Dandelion Hashtable: beyond billion requests per second on a commodity serverAntonios Katsarakis
This slide deck presents DLHT, a concurrent in-memory hashtable. Despite efforts to optimize hashtables, that go as far as sacrificing core functionality, state-of-the-art designs still incur multiple memory accesses per request and block request processing in three cases. First, most hashtables block while waiting for data to be retrieved from memory. Second, open-addressing designs, which represent the current state-of-the-art, either cannot free index slots on deletes or must block all requests to do so. Third, index resizes block every request until all objects are copied to the new index. Defying folklore wisdom, DLHT forgoes open-addressing and adopts a fully-featured and memory-aware closed-addressing design based on bounded cache-line-chaining. This design offers lock-free index operations and deletes that free slots instantly, (2) completes most requests with a single memory access, (3) utilizes software prefetching to hide memory latencies, and (4) employs a novel non-blocking and parallel resizing. In a commodity server and a memory-resident workload, DLHT surpasses 1.6B requests per second and provides 3.5x (12x) the throughput of the state-of-the-art closed-addressing (open-addressing) resizable hashtable on Gets (Deletes).
Dandelion Hashtable: beyond billion requests per second on a commodity server
Iucn2012
1. Delivery of a UK MPA network
Jean-Luc Solandt
Senior Biodiversity Policy Officer
UK Protected Areas – Natural Solutions 2012
2. History of MPAs in UK waters
From sites to networks
Stakeholder led design of English sites
Wales and Scotland
Managing UK MPAs
3. MPAs have moved on in a generation
• 1981 – 3 marine reserves from the Wildlife and
Countryside Act
• 1994 – 70 marine Special Areas of Conservation
(thinking from 1990’s to 2008+ is for networks
rather than individual sites)
• 2011 – now 96 SACs in UK (5.6% of UK seas)
• 3 tiny marine (no take) reserves
• New MCZs and national MPAs from 2013
• MSFD 2016 and 2020 interim targets
4. UK SAC network – only for 16 marine features
96 SACs (84 inshore)
5.6% of UK seas
30% of Welsh waters
25% of English waters
(since 2010)
Top down
Science review in 2010
5. MPA science grows (1990-)
Partnership for Interdisciplinary Science
for the Conservation of the Oceans
(PISCO).
Direct policy advocacy work from the
scientific community.
UK studies show recovery of
biodiversity, lobsters and scallops
(Isle of Man; Lundy; Arran; Lyme
Bay)
6. Science & international commitments
England – MCZ project 2009-2013
New Marine Conservation Zones
will be more prescriptive
(objectives and protection
levels)
With SACs are meant to result in a
network
Four English regional projects
7. MCZs - Peer reviewed scientific guidelines
1. Representivity – from 23 broad-scale habitats, 22 rare/threatened
habitats, and 31 low or limited mobility species.
2. Replication – 2 broadscale; 3-5 FOCI in each region
3. Adequacy – 15-41%
4. Viability – 5km minimum MCZ boundary size for broadscale. At least
500m for FOCI.
5. Connectivity – At most, the distances between sites should be 50km.
6. Protection (level) – that ensures the favourable condition of the sites
designated features. Reference areas (no take marine reserves) for
each feature in each MCZ region.
7. Best available evidence – identified on the best available evidence
(now ‘best available science’).
8.
9.
10. MCZ management
‘Maintain’ or ‘recover’ objectives
Depends on ‘feature sensitivity’
Sites will allow a multitude of different
activities in a single site
MCZ will have voluntary management
If voluntary measures don’t work
statutory measures will be
considered
11. Pressures on MPAs – mostly from
fisheries
Much MPA management hinges on this debate –
to trawl or not to trawl?
Trawlermen say: ‘prove trawling is damaging’
Conservationists say: ‘prove it isn’t damaging’ (backed
by the Habitats Directive)
15. Scottish MPAs project 0-200nm
Marine (Scotland) Act
Scottish Ministers
designate MPAs (and
develop plans and issue
licenses)
UK Marine & CA Act
Scottish Ministers
designate MPAs (and
issue licenses and draft plans)
with UK SoS sign-off
16. Conclusions
Since 1981 we’ve come a long way in scale
From sites to a draft site network (at least in England)
Designation will be limited by industry lobby / evidence
base (from 127 draft new sites to about 50)
Management at the site level is overly complex (feature
based)
Questions over offshore
NET RESULT = Mostly paper parks, but scale is promising
Current designated MPAs are few (but not according to other European nations), widely dispersed, and don’t adequately conserve UK offshore features. This is not a coherent network according to OSPAR (that recommends between 10 and 50% protection). Sites increased in English waters in 2010 in order to protect necessary amount of UK reef habitat, that contributes the majority of this habitat to the entire European network. A coherent network should have representative species and habitats covered by the protected areas. Sandbanks, reefs, sea caves, seals, dolphins etc. doesn’t necessarily cut it, as they are too broad, and only seals, dolphins, salmon, eels and otters are the marine species relevant to the legislation that occur in UK waters. BAP species aren’t included. Over 87% of SACs are in the inshore, as this is where there is most biodiversity, but also as this is where domestic fishing regulations make it simpler for member states to manage the most damaging fishing activities. The exception is the Darwin Mounds to the NE of Scotland where UK successfully lobbied EU member states via the CFP to prevent destructive fishing gears on the site. The recently announced Dogger Bank is vulnerable to bottom towed fishing gear according to UK’s statutory nature conservation advisor (JNCC). Wales has had 30% of its waters in EMS for a number of years. Only recently has this resulted in the scallop fishing ban. Other forms of bottom-towed fishing gears, and static gears are permitted in sites. Up until 2010, England had less than 5% of its waters in SACs, now this is 24%. A recent independent review of the science to underpin designation of SACs was found to be sound.
The science behind setting up a well-managed network of MPAs, and particularly science behind the effectiveness of MPAs has been growing over the past 20 years. This has culminated in a body of scientists and literature serving to influence policy makers. Much of the science behind marine reserve and MPA efficacy has been drawn from studies concentrating on finfish. However, there have been excellent studies carried out in The Isle of Man and The Georges Bank that have showed considerable positive changes to diversity and complexity of 3-dimensional habitat in MPAs that have restricted bottom-towed fishing gears.
New MCZs will be more prescriptive in saying what is to be protected where, and from which activity. The draft conservation objectives for the sites have been discussed with stakeholders. The comprehensive ecological guidance that provided the ‘rules of designation’ came from peer reviewed document by JNCC and NE. it broke down the ecological criteria into the following: Representivity – from 23 broad-scale habitats, 22 rare/threatened habitats, and 31 low or limited mobility species. Replication – 2 broadscale; 3-5 FOCI Adequacy – 15-41% Viability – 5km minimum MCZ boundary size for broadscale. At least 500m for FOCI. Connectivity – At most, the distances between sites should be 50km. Protection (level) – that ensures the favourable condition of the sites designated features. Reference areas (no take marine reserves) for each feature in each MCZ region. Best available evidence – identified on the best available evidence (now ‘best available science’).
New MCZs will be more prescriptive in saying what is to be protected where, and from which activity. The draft conservation objectives for the sites have been discussed with stakeholders. The comprehensive ecological guidance that provided the ‘rules of designation’ came from peer reviewed document by JNCC and NE. it broke down the ecological criteria into the following: Representivity – from 23 broad-scale habitats, 22 rare/threatened habitats, and 31 low or limited mobility species. Replication – 2 broadscale; 3-5 FOCI Adequacy – 15-41% Viability – 5km minimum MCZ boundary size for broadscale. At least 500m for FOCI. Connectivity – At most, the distances between sites should be 50km. Protection (level) – that ensures the favourable condition of the sites designated features. Reference areas (no take marine reserves) for each feature in each MCZ region. Best available evidence – identified on the best available evidence (now ‘best available science’).
Four regional projects that plan ‘Marine Conservation Zones’ up to and beyond 12nm to the midline with other MS or 200nm. 10 stakeholder group meetings always over 1-2 days. Meetings held between April 2010 and September 2011. Project team was assigned manager; MPA planner; 2 mappers; fisheries liaison officers; communications officers and administrators. Meetings were facilitated by professional facilitators. Meetings had sub-groups and local groups to provide detailed resolution of proposals, maps of features, and use. No management measures were discussed for sites before June 2011 for most of the project areas. Therefore most stakeholders ‘assumed the worst’ in their decision making. Initial sites were very much moved during the process. There was a move to reduce and remove sites towards the end of some of the processes. Often the most contentious sites were ignored until late in the day or when meetings had ended. Where ecological targets weren’t met for sites near the end of the process, project staff hurried the process through.
Finding Sanctuary criticised the process in that they felt the stakeholders should have final say on management measures. However, only draft management measures derived from draft conservation objectives have been achieved by the end of the projects (September 2011). Each project is doing a (socio-economic) impact analysis. This is primarily looking into social and economic cost of each of the 127 potential MCZs. MCS has countered this work in that it focuses on the tangibles, such as monetary costs. Societal benefits of the concept and location of MPAs haven’t been systematically gathered by the project. MCS has used an online tool - your seas your voice – to show the level of societal support for marine reserves and MPAs in specific location. Overall, there is support for these measures from wider UK public. Mixed management approaches and voluntary management of individual MCZs leads to a huge number of questions. Will stakeholders understand what they are allowed to do and where? How will stakeholder distinguish what they can do and can’t do given there are different CFP regulations, SACs and now MCZs? Will MCZs beyond 12nm be respected (given the CFP regulations regulates international fishing in MS waters). Will voluntary management simply lead to compliance by some but not by others? Voluntary management usually requires a collective will on behalf of the sea users to provide some sort of committee / group to discuss management of the site – this would have to be artificially constructed after the site has been designated? If there is poor understanding and respect for the site, the site will not change / recover or show any discernable change since the designation. Will this lack of change weaken the opportunity to demonstrate the effectiveness of well-managed MCZs? Will society, fishers and other marine users in the end understand that the only useful MPA is one where recovery is the target for the condition of the features? Otherwise, wider society and future generations of extractive sea users may assume that this process has been the
Yet, there continue to be regional and knock-on problems with managing fishing. For example, the UK has a growing fleet of scallop dredgers, as Pecten maximus is non-quota. The season for scalloping is restricted to the winter months, however much of the fleet is nomadic. Where one administration offers controls to the fleet, another may not, that causes knock-on effects to adjacent fishing grounds.
Appropriate management of potentially damaging fishing does exist, but in all cases, this is on a site by site basis (not a national approach on a feature by feature basis). Apart from the welsh scallop order 2010, which at last controls a damaging activity on a national basis.
And what of much of the remainder of UK seas. This is where the Scottish MPA process comes in. MCS in Scotland, having helped secure the Marine (Scotland) Act and commitments in it to a network of MPAs after almost ten years campaigning, is also engaging with the Scottish MPA project which extends from 0-200nm, where Scottish MPAs are designated under the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010 to 12nm and under the MCAA 2009 from 12-200nm. Scottish Ministers lead on the whole project although UK SoS sign-off is needed 12-200nm. We are encouraged that our Your Seas Your Voice data will be able to contribute to socio-economic impact assessments of Scottish MPA proposals.