UK Greens To Focus On Seabed Protection As Destruction Goes On - Guardian

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Ministers will face a concerted attack from green groups this week when the government announces a marine bill which critics say 'puts the environment last'. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs will launch its bid to save Britain's seas from dying of neglect, announcing it is to begin consultations over the bill which will seek to replace the bewildering array of different laws that control the oil wells, fishing and endangered species round our coasts.

A total of 36 acts currently control oil drilling, fishing and extraction of building materials from the seabed. Under the government's plans a single legislative body will replace most of these.

Environmental groups say endangered fish, sea plants and cold-water corals are still going to be treated as subsidiary problems when questions of oil drilling, installation of off-shore windfarms and fishing are being considered. 'We have been negotiating with the civil servants for six years about this bill,' said Joan Edwards of the Wildlife Trusts organisation. 'Now the government has revealed its plans and there is only passing reference to protecting marine life.'

Green groups say the seabed around Britain is now being turned into featureless deserts of sand and mud. Intense forms of fishing are ripping up the sea floor. In the Channel, rare beds of sunset corals and sea fan shellfish are being destroyed at an alarming rate. Similarly, basking sharks and seahorses are being killed off. We are going to lose all these precious types of marine wildlife,' added Edwards. The Wildlife Trusts, in common with other green groups, are pressing for the setting up of protected seabed zones, the equivalent of Sites of Special Scientific Interest on land protected under environment legislation. At present there is no mention of them in the government's plans.

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http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1739816,00.html