PRESS RELEASE

27 May 2004

MP backs campaign for stronger protection for UK's seas

Richard Ottaway MP is supporting a new campaign by the UK's leading conservation organisations to improve protection of our seas. With World Oceans Day taking place on 8 June, there is no better time to highlight the inadequacy of the laws which protect and manage what goes on around our shores, and the need for comprehensive new legislation to do a better job.

Richard Ottaway said:

"I wholeheartedly support Wildlife and Countryside Link's marine campaign, and I have added my name to House of Commons Early Day Motion 171 which calls on the Government to introduce comprehensive new laws at the earliest opportunity to protect and manage the marine environment in an integrated and sustainable manner. It is fantastic that this motion is supported by almost 300 MPs from across the political parties."

"The richness of the UK's seas is beyond doubt. They are home to fifty per cent of our wildlife - more than 40,000 species - including seabirds, seals, basking sharks, whales and dolphins, sea-horses, deep sea fish, sea anemones, sponges and cold water corals."

"However, current laws to protect this wildlife are piecemeal and often outdated. Our marine wildlife needs better protection in the face of ever-increasing pressure on its habitats from overfishing, pollution, development, dredging, and other activities."

"Our seas are the last living wilderness but they are being damaged and exploited in an unsustainable way. Changing the way we manage them would allow us to do much more than simply conserve wildlife, important though that is. New laws could also help to untangle the net of complicated regulations which face marine industries".

"There is space at sea for a whole range of different activities, but they must be managed in a way which avoids conflict. A proper framework will allow wildlife conservation, recreational use of the marine environment and essential economic activities at sea to go hand in hand, addressing potential difficulties before they arise."

ENDS

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