Clause 153
Marine and Coastal Access Bill [Lords]
11:00 am
Andrew George (St Ives, Liberal Democrat)
I beg to move amendment 53, in clause 153, page 103, line 12, at end insert—
‘(ba) seek to further the conservation and recovery of marine flora and fauna in the district,’.
I should like to take this opportunity to emphasise that furthering the conservation and recovery of the health of the marine flora and fauna in the district should be clearly spelled out as an objective of an IFCA. Clause 154 is about the protection of marine conservation zones, but not all the inshore waters will be a MCZ, so the purpose of this amendment is to spell out the importance of protecting, through further conservation and recovery, the marine flora and fauna outside MCZs, too.
I have perhaps spoken more than most about the interests of the fishing industry. Although much of the fish that our fishermen catch and bring to our coastal communities is sold to other states in Europe, we still eat a lot of fish in this country and that fish is caught in the sea. Farming fish is a less satisfactory method of producing fish for the marketplace than catching wild fish. Fishermen are often unfairly and inaccurately caricatured as the villains of the sea or the inconsiderate plunderers of the sea’s resources, and my amendment might appear to be anathema to them. It could be seen as a further step contrary to the interests of fishermen who simply want to help themselves to the marine resource free from any impediment.
On Second Reading, however, I pointed out that the fishing industry itself is keen to ensure that the marine resource is protected. It recognises that it needs sustainable fishing and it has a shared interest in ensuring that fish stocks can recover and that spawning stocks are protected. Fishermen, marine conservationists and marine biologists share an interest in ensuring that these things are properly regulated. Fishermen recognise how the viability of their own business is undermined if they are out there doing precisely the same as their competitors in the sea and going for the last fish in any particular water. It is therefore in their interest that the marine resource is protected, so they are often in favour of measures to achieve that. The closure of the Trevose spring spawning ground on the north coast of Cornwall is an example of an initiative that was proposed and promoted by the fishing industry itself.
I hope that the Minister realises that, rather than having a purely conservationist perspective, the amendment recognises a shared interest between the promotion of marine biodiversity and a sustainable fishing industry.