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Please remember to help us make the Goodwin Sands a Highly Protected Marine Area!


Dear Goodwin Sands Conservation Trust Supporter,

Firstly, we would like to thank all of you who have responded to the Call for Evidence about the proposed Highly Protected Marine Areas. We really appreciate it as every submission shows that people really care about protecting the Goodwin Sands.

Secondly, if you haven't had the chance to do it yet, this is a gentle reminder that you still have time, as the consultation runs until 15th December 2020.

Please see below for tips on what to say and a link to the Call for Evidence. It really doesn't take long to complete!

The Goodwin Sands MCZ is a prime example of how marine protection just isn’t working; the government’s marine licensing authority granted a licence to remove 3 million tonnes of a protected habitat for landfill in Dover because they were advised by Natural England that the fauna would recover within five years.

This action makes a complete mockery of the meaning of the word ‘protection’. Why is a marine protected area even being subjected to an activity from which is has to recover?

The failure of MCZs' to protect sensitive marine areas has been recognised by the government so they are now considering a new initiative – Highly Protected Marine Areas (HPMAs). Within these HPMA’s, commercial activities that damage the seabed, including marine aggregate extraction, or sand mining as we prefer to call it, will be banned.

Five pilot sites have been proposed for designation as HPMAs and the government has issued a a Call for Evidence to give the public an opportunity to express their opinion.

Goodwin Sands MCZ is not included on this list but we feel very strongly that it should be, since none of the proposed sites are under similar threat from sand mining. Not only has the Goodwin Sands been recognised by Defra as containing habitats and species worthy of protection but the sandbanks provide a vital sea defence for the chronically eroding East Kent foreshore.

And of course, the area is a graveyard of over 2,000 naval and merchant ships, their crews and passengers and contains the graves of scores of brave young airmen from the Battle of Britain. That in itself should make it a prime target for protection.

Indifference is tantamount to agreement! We are therefore urging you to please respond to the government’s Call for Evidence with your views before 15th December 2020.


Like us, you may not be able to provide any relevant information about the currently proposed sites. We have used box number 9 at the end of the online form labelled 'Feedback on the Online Survey' to submit our views and recommend you do the same.

Reasons the Goodwin Sands MCZ should become a pilot HPMA include:

• Protected habitats are currently under threat from marine aggregate extraction
• The Sands act as a vital sea defence for the unstable East Kent foreshore
• The area contains the wrecks of a recorded 2,000 ships spanning 700 years or more - probably the largest maritime graveyard in the world - some say 50,000 souls have drowned there
• The area holds the graves of scores of British, American, German and Polish airmen from WWII

Thank you for your invaluable help and support!





Respond to the Government's Call for Evidence before 15th December 2020


Visit the Goodwin Sands Conservation Trust website


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Goodwin Sands become next Marine Conservation Zone

After a long campaign by many environmental organisations including our local Goodwin Sands SOS and the Kent Wildlife Trust the government has announced today that the Sands will become the next Marine Conservation Zone .

This does not immediately stop the dredging of the sands by the Dover Harbour Board and Goodwin Sands SOS have a judicial review of the decision to allow dredging under way. They need more funds for the case, please see their most email below:

Dear Goodwin Sands SOS supporter,

We appreciate that we have only just written to you but we thought you would like to know that the Goodwin Sands have been included in the third and final tranche of Marine Conservation Zones, announced today by DEFRA.

This is excellent news for the Sands in general and a very positive step forward for the campaign, coming as it does just days before the Judicial Review on 5th June. However, unfortunately it does not mean that we have won our case to prevent Dover Harbour Board from dredging.

What it should mean is that the Judge will review all evidence with extra care and attention before arriving at a decision about quashing the licence. This is now a national test case about the robustness of the Blue Belt initiative and its effectiveness in face of the Government’s economic Blue Growth agenda.

Our fund raising appeal stands at just over £2,000 short of our £20,000 target. Please give generously; we need to ensure the Marine Conservation Zone programme is worth the paper it is written on! Donations can be made easily at http://www.goodwinsandssos.org or if you would like us to claim Gift Aid on your donation please email us directly at goodwinsandssos@gmail.com. Please note we cannot claim Gift Aid on CrowdJustice donations.

Many thanks for your continued support.

Full Details at : https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/marine-conservation-zones-goodwin-sands

Kent Wildlife Trust gets funding for Kent's Coast

Great news that Kent Wildlife Trust has won funding for its Guardians of Deep project around Kent's Coast

Guardians of the Deep: £446,100 grant

The Guardians of the Deep is a three-year project that aims to engage communities, businesses and visitors by raising awareness of marine habitats and promoting an active and ongoing guardianship role to protect them for the future. Almost the entire Kent coast falls within a Marine Protected Area (MPA) and will feature eleven Marine Conservation Zones by 2018. Kent’s marine habitats are considered at threat from the fishing industry, invasive species, pollutants and regression of coastal defences.

The project will be run by Kent Wildlife Trust in partnership with Thanet District Council, Medway Council, and Kent County Council and will divide the coastline into three sections – the White Cliffs of Dover (from Folkestone to Deal), North East Kent (from Deal to Whitstable), and Medway and Swale. It will comprise five key activities which will involve 60,000 people in marine awareness activities:

Coastal guardians –360 community champions will run marine events and identification surveys to be shared with coastal heritage protection bodies

Undersea explorers – workshops will be held with young people raising awareness of marine habitats, water safety, and snorkelling skills

Wild beach – a programme of coastal learning activities for 60 schools and youth groups covering geology, biology, social history and the value of marine heritage

Coastal connections – a digital campaign aimed at reaching up to 150,000 members of the public

Coastal Citizen Science – volunteers will be trained in survey and species recognition and 60 ‘coast-busters’ will deal with non-native species identified

full story at:
http://www.kentwildlifetrust.org.uk/national-lottery-invests-365m-land-and-coastal-projects

Marine Conservation Zones step closer nr Deal-Dover

From Kent Wildlife Trust

Marine Conservation Zones
February brought the encouraging news that three more Kent sites are on Defra’s candidate list for the second tranche of Marine Conservation Zone designations, due to be made in 2015.

Kent Wildlife Trust has strong links with each of these sites: The Swale recommended MCZ, adjacent to where we manage land. Dover to Deal and Dover to Folkestone - two sites below Dover’s white cliffs, where our Shoresearch and Seasearch volunteers have collected significant amounts of data to support designation.

These sites will need your support to ensure they make it through the consultation process to designation and protection.

Please contact bryony.chapman@kentwildlife.org.uk if you would like to become a ‘Friend’ of these sites and receive updates on how to help. Click here for more information  

Kent Marine Conservation Zones - Only 4 selected by Defra

From Kent Wildlife Trust 

‘Bitterly disappointed’ - Kent Wildlife Trust reacts

to the Marine Conservation Zones consultation just published

On 12^th December Defra released its long-awaited consultation on the next stages of designation of Marine Conservation Zones (MCZs) in English and non-devolved waters.

Along with other English Wildlife Trusts, Kent Wildlife Trust is gravely concerned at the lack of ambition shown in this consultation.  Defra proposes to designate only 31 of the 127 sites recommended by experts and stakeholders at the end of August last year.  This includes just four small sites of the eleven MCZs recommended around Kent and just 9 of the 31 recommended in the south east.  The four Kent sites are: Medway Estuary, Thanet Coast, Folkestone Pomerania and Hythe Bay. 

Kent Wildlife Trust’s Marine Policy Officer, Bryony Chapman, said:  “We were promised a network of sites to help reverse the decline in our marine wildlife and habitats, and this does not even approach a network.  We are bitterly disappointed that the Government has largely ignored the recommendations made by the stakeholder groups, and is failing to safeguard the future of our seas.”

The 127 recommended Marine Conservation Zones were chosen after two years of hard work by more than one million stakeholders from all sectors of the marine environment and at a cost of over £8.8 million to Government.  Kent Wildlife Trust was heavily involved in this process, attending all the stakeholder meetings, discussing the best sites for wildlife and for all the various industries and recreational users and reaching consensus on a network of sites across the south east. 

Seven of the recommended sites around Kent are not being put forward for designation in this consultation.  Of these, four have been identified as being at high risk to damage, and yet their designation is being delayed for an undetermined time, so they will continue to be degraded, and wildlife lost.

See Editors’ Note 1.

To admire some of the many wonders these MCZs feature, visit The Wildlife Trusts’ interactive map at wildlifetrusts.org/MCZmap.  This includes videos taken on survey dives in several of Kent’s recommended Marine Conservation Zones, showing the wonderful and fragile marine life we are trying to protect.

Marine Conservation Zones should protect the species and habitats found within them from the most damaging and degrading of activities whilst mostly allowing sustainable activity to continue.  The network was designed to ensure that we don’t end up with isolated and vulnerable sites and to ensure that the wide range of marine habitats found in UK seas are protected.  Failure to designate all but a very small proportion of sites recommended by these stakeholders will mean that we lack the ecologically coherent network that our seas so badly need to recover.

The UK’s marine habitats are rich and diverse but largely unprotected - which is why The Wildlife Trusts spent a decade asking the Government to pass the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009.  This included a commitment to designate this ecologically coherent marine network of protected areas. 

The seas surrounding Kent have an astonishingly varied range of submerged landscapes which support wonderful marine life: from sponge meadows and shrimp beds to rossworm reefs, and from deep chalk gullies and greensand ridges to massive sandbanks.  Without these habitats and wildlife communities there simply wouldn't be any fish, let alone fantastic dahlia anemones, seahorses, dolphins, brittlestars and all the other wild and extraordinary creatures which are part of a healthy marine ecosystem.

Despite the variety of fantastic species and habitats, our marine environment is in decline.  In the last 400 years, two species of whale and dolphin have gone extinct in UK waters and of the 11 commonly sighted species found in UK waters, all are considered to be in decline.  Basking shark numbers have declined by 95% and species such as the common skate, once abundant in our waters are now critically endangered.  For too long, we have taken this environment for granted, taking too much, with too little care, destroying fragile habitats.

Designation of an ecologically coherent network would provide our seas with the protection they need to recover from past abuses and help them to be restored to their full potential.

The Wildlife Trusts will be responding to the Government consultation.  We will be publishing our recommendations on the consultation on our webpage.  Meanwhile, we urge those interested in responding to the consultation, to sign up to be an MCZ friend so that we can contact you when we complete our response to the consultation.

Go to www.wildlifetrusts.org/MCZfriends to sign up.

Ends

Editors’ Notes:

1) Kent sites included in the 31 for designation in 2013:

            Medway Estuary, Thanet Coast, Folkestone Pomerania, Hythe Bay

    Sites not included for 2013 designation:

Thames Estuary, Swale Estuary, Goodwin Sands, Kentish Knock, Offshore Foreland, Dover to Deal and Dover to Folkestone.

    Four sites ‘at high risk’ but not included for designation in 2013: 

Thames Estuary, Swale Estuary, Dover to Deal, Dover to Folkestone.

2) Map of the recommended MCZs and the sites put forward for 2013 designation is available on request.  

3) Background to recommended MCZs: At the end of 2009, the UK Government passed a piece of landmark legislation, the Marine and Coastal Access Act. This was swiftly followed, at the start of 2010, by similar legislation in Scotland - the Marine (Scotland) Act. These pieces of legislation place a duty on the UK, Welsh and Scottish Governments to dramatically boost protection by creating an ecologically coherent network of protected areas.  By 2013, the UK, Scottish and Welsh governments should designate their network of protected areas.  The 127 recommended MCZs mentioned above cover England and non-devolved waters.  The Scottish Executive and the Welsh Assembly are in the process of determining their network. The Welsh Assembly is in the first round of consultations for its sites and the Scottish Assembly is expected to release its proposed network for consultation later this year. The Northern Irish Assembly is currently consulting on its Marine Bill which should ensure this network extends into Northern Irish waters.

4) Kent Wildlife Trust is the leading wildlife conservation charity for Kent and Medway. Since its formation in 1958 we have worked to make Kent a better place for both wildlife and people. We manage five visitor centres and 60 nature reserves covering 7,500 acres, and we are supported by over 31,000 members and around 1,000 registered volunteers.

5) The Wildlife Trusts wildlifetrusts.org

There are 47 individual Wildlife Trusts covering the whole of the UK.  All are working for an environment rich in wildlife for everyone.  We have more than 800,000 members including 150,000 members of our junior branch Wildlife Watch.  Our vision is to create A Living Landscape and secure Living Seas.  We manage around 2,300 nature reserves and every year we advise thousands of landowners and organisations on how to manage their land for wildlife. We have 35,000 volunteers and host around 17,000 events engaging people with nature every year.  We also run marine conservation projects around the UK, collecting vital data on the state of our seas and celebrating our amazing marine wildlife.  Every year we work with thousands of schools and our nature reserves and visitor centres receive millions of visitors.  Each Wildlife Trust is working within its local communities to inspire people about the future of their area: their own Living Landscapes and Living Seas.

Kent Wildlife Trust on Dover-Deal MCZ

Running between Kingsdown, Deal to the north and Dover to the south is an important stretch of rich chalk reef, lying below the famous white cliffs of Dover.


 The chalk platform extends across the shore and out to sea, with deep sand-filled gullies between tall ridges of chalk covered in seaweeds, sponges and anemones. Large crabs and lobsters find shelter within the chalk in recesses, while baby cuttlefish swim around the outcrops, demonstrating their amazing camouflage.

Further offshore, the chalk gradually becomes covered in coarse sediments. Here, thousands of sandy tubes made by tiny ross worms form significant reefs which can harbour a wonderful diversity of wildlife and support the whole food web.

Film taken on Kent Wildlife Trust Seasearch surveys within the Dover to Deal recommended Marine Conservation Zone.

http://youtu.be/dq8xnh1lC3o

Deal - Kingsdown - Dover Marine Conservation Zone Film

This short film is taken in the proposed Marine Conservation Zone between Deal & Dover and includes the Kingsdown Butts

For the area covered see http://www.mczmapping.org/

This is still under consultation process - the next stage kicks off in Dec 2012 - but the film gives us all a glimpse what is just off our East Kent coast. For more info see the DEFRA site


Running between Kingsdown, Deal to the north and Dover to the south is an important stretch of rich chalk reef, lying below the famous white cliffs of Dover.

The chalk platform extends across the shore and out to sea, with deep sand-filled gullies between tall ridges of chalk covered in seaweeds, sponges and anemones.

Large crabs and lobsters find shelter within the chalk in recesses, while baby cuttlefish swim around the outcrops, demonstrating their amazing camouflage.

 Further offshore, the chalk gradually becomes covered in coarse sediments. Here, thousands of sandy tubes made by tiny ross worms form significant reefs which can harbour a wonderful diversity of wildlife and support the whole food web.

If you cannot see the embedded Video its here http://youtu.be/gVS-b2usDvw

Kent Marine Conservation Zones at risk

From Kent Wildlife Trust

Marine Conservation Zones at risk

Big Society has spoken up for our seas – but will Government listen?

The wildlife in England’s seas is facing a serious threat, warns Kent Wildlife Trust.

The long-awaited network of marine protected areas, promised by Government for 2012, is in danger, according to the largest voluntary conservation organisation for Kent and Medway, which has been instrumental in marine campaigning and research. Kent Wildlife Trust is urging the public to write to Under-Secretary for Natural Environment and Fisheries, Richard Benyon MP, in support of Marine Conservation Zones.

After years of pressure from NGOs, and with huge public support, the Marine and Coastal Access Act of 2009 promised a coherent network of protection around the coasts by 2012. Now 127 marine sites around England’s coast, including eleven around Kent*, have been recommended by four regional stakeholder groups to become Marine Conservation Zones next year.

The recommendations are the result of two years of consultation with more than one million stakeholders involved including fishermen, conservationists and businesses. This has been the first ‘Big Society’ experiment where local stakeholders have decided together which areas of the sea should be protected.

There is concern that the Government will only progress a fraction of the 127 recommended sites to designation. This would result in an ineffective network of Marine Conservation Zones, leaving vulnerable and precious areas unprotected.

Bryony Chapman, Marine Policy Officer at Kent Wildlife Trust, said:

“A huge amount of work has been done to get a broad agreement on this network of sites needed for the health and future productivity of our marine environment. Now, however, in the final stages the Government has lost its direction and is proposing to over-ride the recommendations of local stakeholders and cut the 127 sites down to a fraction of this number, in contradiction with the aims of the new Marine and Coastal Access Act.”

*The recommended sites around Kent are:
Thames Estuary, a hugely important ecological corridor supporting fish spawning and nursery grounds.
Medway Estuary with its rich muddy sediments full of small creatures which provide food for fish and birds, and home to the very scarce tentacled lagoon worm.
Swale Estuary, with its channels and creeks providing very important fish spawning and nursery grounds.

Thanet Coast, with its wonderful chalk reefs extending across the shore and out to sea, rich with mussel beds, rossworm reefs, colourful seaweeds and fish, and supporting special species such as stalked jellyfish. Outer Kentish Knock, an impressive sediment bank where mussels and rossworm reefs provide habitat shelter for other species.
Goodwin Sands, the famous sand banks where grey and common seals can forage for fish, and haul out to rest, and where some even have their pups.
Deal to Dover Reef, with its colourful chalk gullies and boulders which abound with special plants and animals, including stalked jellyfish, elegant anemones and tompot blennies.

Dover to Folkestone Reefs, where the chalk, clay and greensand outcrops provide home to seahorses and other varied animal and plant life, while rossworms build reefs on the sediment in between.
Folkestone Pomerania Ross Coral Holes, large seabed bowls where delicate and colourful sponges, ross corals, fan worms and anemones live on the rocky ledges.

Hythe Bay, with its specialised community including spoonworms, square crabs and molluscs that burrow in the soft muddy seafloor.

Offshore Foreland, an area of high biological diversity on the rock and sand seabed in the middle of the Dover Strait.

John Bennett, Kent Wildlife Trust’s Chief Executive added:

“Kent Wildlife Trust’s Marine Officer, backed by a large body of volunteers, has for years been recording the marine animals and plants we find off the Kentish coast, and on our shores. Now, with other Wildlife Trusts all around the UK, we are lobbying hard for the successful completion of a process that will make the difference between the life or death of our seas. We know there is great public support for Marine Conservation Zones. This is a once in a lifetime chance. The Government can’t afford to let it slip away.” 

Kent Wildlife Trust is urging people to write to Richard Benyon and ask for Government to create the proposed network of 127 zones in England. Guidance on writing to the Minister can be found at www.wildlifetrusts.org/saveourmczs.