Anyone been to the Chagos Islands?

[Boreades]

I've just been reading about plans to create the world’s biggest marine reserve there. Which I thought sounded like a Good Thing, given the way we are fishing the oceans.

You would have thought someone like Professor John Beddington, the Chief Scientific Adviser (and a renowned expert on marine fisheries) would welcome something that would help conserve rapidly shrinking marine-life.

Err, no! He owns 50.1% of a company which holds a government contract to manage fishing in the area, which would be banned if the reserve were created. The Marine Resources Assessment Group (MRAG) Ltd was established by Professor Beddington in 1986.

Willie Mackenzie, an ocean campaigner for Greenpeace, said: “Scientists tell us that marine reserves are crucial to protect marine life. Unfortunately it seems that a company owned by the Government’s Chief Scientific Adviser didn’t get the memo.”

More here --> http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article6997414.ece

 

[thedoc]

anyone been to the Chagos islands?

no

 

[Ludd]

no

Even the Chagos Islanders can't go there. Yachts can't go there without a special permit(costing circ £500 IIRC.
Theoretically British Indian Ocean Territories, actually controlled by the leaseholding erseholes on Diego Garcia.

 

[pyrojames]

Yes. I spent 3 weeks there about 10 years ago. Very beautiful, very untouched. 5 boats there when I arrived, about 12 when I left. A few spending months.

 

[ianabc]

Simon Winchester wrote about them...

Winchester wrote about his adveantrure, and his expulsion, quite a good read in his Outpost of the British Emprie book....

"Winchester’s most outstanding travel book probably remains Outposts (1985), subtitled ‘Journeys to the surviving relics of the British Empire’, which took him three years and 100,000 miles of travelling. The author’s foreword to the updated 2003 edition calls it ‘an affectionate … poignant, and on occasion sentimental account of my wanderings’. Full of entertaining sidelights on Imperial history, it also records some tense encounters, as when his chartered yacht reaches a ‘deserted paradise’ in the islands of Diego Garcia, only to be warned off the American military base there." worth reading

 

[guernseyman]

I've just been reading about plans to create the world’s biggest marine reserve there. Which I thought sounded like a Good Thing, given the way we are fishing the oceans.

It is disgusting in the light of what the UK government has done to the Chagos islanders, and their dogs.

Time and again the House of Lords has ruled against the government, and the government uses the Privy Council to ignore the rulings.

It's more worrying for us here in the Channel Islands as the Privy Council is our contact of last resort with the Crown.