Conservation is the priority at Studland warns MMO.

[Boathook]

I thought that failure to display your ssr number was an offence.

Only if you go abroad. There is no requirement for ssr if you stay in UK waters.

 

[savageseadog]

Now they have a taste for it..... where's next?

There seems to be some moves regarding Sea grass conservation at Porthdinllaen, North Wales, an important anchorage and mooring/landing spot.

Restoring our Damaged Seagrass Meadows - Project Seagrass | Advancing the conservation of seagrass through education, influence, research and action

 

[Concerto]

There seems to be some moves regarding Sea grass conservation at Porthdinllaen, North Wales, an important anchorage and mooring/landing spot.

Restoring our Damaged Seagrass Meadows - Project Seagrass | Advancing the conservation of seagrass through education, influence, research and action

That web page was posted in 2015 as they "will check the progress during our 2016 winter, spring, summer and autumn surveys " Nothing more seems to have been posted. Maybe the students from Swansea University have finished their course and no one else has been following up the "progress" of the planted seagrass.

"Porthdinllaen is the perfect place for seagrass to grow and as such the seagrass meadow there is thought to be the largest and densest in Wales covering an area the size of 46 football pitches. " It is also interesting they state "It’s estimated that around 10% of the seagrass at Porthdinllaen has been lost due to moorings alone." Yet "By far the biggest concern within the extensive intertidal seagrass meadows of the site are tractors and 4×4 vehicles, which routinely cross the seagrass to retrieve the fishermen’s catch. " but do not quote it as a percentage. Preconceived bias against boating?

 

[Keith 66]

Fishermen are working & will claim rights etc, far more bolshy as well. So yotties are an easy target.

 

[oldharry]

That web page was posted in 2015 as they "will check the progress during our 2016 winter, spring, summer and autumn surveys " Nothing more seems to have been posted. Maybe the students from Swansea University have finished their course and no one else has been following up the "progress" of the planted seagrass.

"Porthdinllaen is the perfect place for seagrass to grow and as such the seagrass meadow there is thought to be the largest and densest in Wales covering an area the size of 46 football pitches. " It is also interesting they state "It’s estimated that around 10% of the seagrass at Porthdinllaen has been lost due to moorings alone." Yet "By far the biggest concern within the extensive intertidal seagrass meadows of the site are tractors and 4×4 vehicles, which routinely cross the seagrass to retrieve the fishermen’s catch. " but do not quote it as a percentage. Preconceived bias against boating?

Sorry to disillusion you, but Porth Dinallaen is one of the most targeted seagrass sites in Wales. It is in the northern end of the Pen Llyn a'r Sarnau SAC area, which extends south round Bardsey extending as far south as Sarn Cynfelin, via the outer end of Sarn Badrig. So it includes Porthmadog Bay, Barmouth Bay and the Estuaries, all of which will be affected as Conservation interests gain the upper hand. There are clear proposal;s for No anchor zones, and mooring holders will soon be required to convert to eco-moorings. Access to the beach will be very limited for any whelled vehicles, including launching trollies.

Forget the fact it is a key stopover for Caernarfon Bar. Like Studland we will just be told we can no longer use it in the way we have, with the backing of law.

Porthdinllaen Seagrass Project - Eurosite

The UK’s biggest seagrass restoration scheme – in pictures

There is little more recent work due to the Pandemic preventing travel. Studland is being fought out from people's desks now.

I predicted 10 years ago Studland was the 'thin end of the wedge', and with the level of disinformation and false news generated by the likes of NGM, Packham, Humble and co in the press and media, popular opinion is firmly behind conservation interest and we have little chance now of retrieving any of our former freedoms.

Where else will be targeted for seagrass? Most of the North coast of the IoW from Priory Bay to Yarmouth, Beaulieu and Lymington Rivers - Beaulieu already has an anchor ban. Parts of Poole Harbour, Studland and Swanage Bays. Further west much of inshore Torbay including the area outside the harbour, Salcombe which already has protected its eelgrass locally, but look for expansion to areras where it 'ought to grow'. Cawsand and Jennycliff Bays are already in the news. Falmouth and Helford river estuaries as locals there know only too well and the Scilly Isles where it abounds in most of the anchorages.

Milfird Haven, specially in the small boat anchorage at Dale, as well as Skomer and Ramsey Islands, and of course Porth Dinllaen. Further north there are established seagrass meadows in Morecambe Bay and Solway Firth.

Up the East Coast it is present in varying amounts in most of the main estuaries of E Anglia, but very restricted by the turbid east coast mud/ water mix!

However, Conservation ambitions do not stop at eelgrass: almost any inshore marine habitat is likely to be targeted. There are advanced moves to protect the kelp beds off Selsey for example, while the beach a Pagham nature Reserve has been closed for many years following the discovery of Delphins snail in the shingle - Delphins being a tiny and very rare snail only found in a few locations (why do I get the feeling that size and rarity is somehow linked....?) Further closures here were ordered when it was found a colony of Terns had taken up residence on the shingle. Terns are ground nesting, and their eggs almost indistinguishable from the shingle. I have clear evidence that Seahorses are actually quite common a little way in offshore - too deep for NGM and his mates to go paddling. Over 50 were found in one pot haul just a few miles east of Studland.

The inshore fishing fleet keep very quiet about it as they know well they will lose their livelihoods if they report concentrations of rare species in the fishing grounds.

In the meantime RSPB still maintains that large moving objects (i.e. yachts) create significant disturbance to nesting birds, whether in the coastal marshes and saltings, or on cliff sites. They earnestly sought additional protection for nesting sites under MCZ status - until Gus Lewis of RYA pointed out that MCZ legislation applies below the HW mark, and few birds nest underwater!

In BORG, we have felt increasingly like the Dutch boy with is finger in the dike.... We actually got most of what we fought for at Studland if it had to become an MCZ. But predictably the second round will cut all that off for real or imagined infractions of the voluntary arrangements we fought for. But we did win a few years more freedom.

I predict that if not our children, then our grandchildren will never be able to enjoy our sport the way we do. Leisure boating will be ticketed, licensed, and subject to severe restrictions in the name of conservation. Looking further ahead I suggest that we will be restricted to allocated leisure boating areas inshore, linked to a chain of marinas and permitted anchorages.

The question for our grandchildren will not be 'is this a safe anchorage', but where CAN I anchor?

Conservation and ecology is taught in our schools, and rammed down our throats at every opportunity. There is little chance that the boating community will be left to get on with our sport unhindered any longer. Conservation is fast becoming a new religion with the great high priests at NE handing down edicts and directives that we can neither understand nor challenge, but must blindly obey while its evangelists rant and rave in the papers about the evils of non adherence to the creed.... and so far the public are swallowing it hook line and sinker.

 

[TSB240]

There seems to be some moves regarding Sea grass conservation at Porthdinllaen, North Wales, an important anchorage and mooring/landing spot.

Restoring our Damaged Seagrass Meadows - Project Seagrass | Advancing the conservation of seagrass through education, influence, research and action

There is no pressure on yachties who use this well known anchorage.
The main reason is the tidal range is such that most yachts can't anchor over the sea grass and it won't grow in the deeper water.
Just to make sure of this the main sea grass area is now covered with keep pots and their markers and floating ropes.
Best holding with an anchor is outside of the moorings. There are some seasonal moorings which are in place for a very few months of the year. The major loss of sea grass is the scouring under the permanent moorings for the fishing fleet!

Dale now has environmental moorings in the traditional anchorage inshore of the pontoon. This is also an extensive shallow seagrass area. There is plenty of space for anchoring further off in deeper water.

 

[oldharry]

The Welsh seagrass conservation push is largely masterminded by Dr Richard Unsworth at Swansea Oceanographic Dept of Swansea Uni, and his team. Unsworth and co take a much more enlightened view than NE, and seek to work WITH the people using these sensitive areas. This is why there is little or no pressure on the boating community in Porth Dinllaen. At Dale for example, Unsowrth worked with the local SC and Boating organisations to develop a simple but highly effective type of mooring that works well both for the boats attached to them, and the marine life. He spoke at one of the Studland MMO seminars demonstrating very clearly how they were working with local communities and boat owners to achieve objectives. It was received with a polite silence by NE, NGM and others.......

 

[Corbert-Beacon]

I’m visiting Poole next week, and in July. I want to comply with the VNAZ at Studland. How do I identify it? Is it included in Navionics updates? I spent 30 minutes on the interweb looking for useful information. If it is there it has be drowned out by so much blurb on strategy, discussion, and multiple out of date proposals - none of which I am interested in.

Thanks if you can help me, John.

 

[Babylon]

Thanks OH again for your all detailed and incisive posts on this.

 

[oldharry]

This is the zone as it is now




...and from 1st June 2022
Also a downloadable leaflet giving the precise Lat and Long of the zones, from MMO:

https://assets.publishing.service.g...nt_data/file/1063955/Studland_Leaflet__1_.pdf

 

[fifer]

Sorry to disillusion you, but Porth Dinallaen is one of the most targeted seagrass sites in Wales. It is in the northern end of the Pen Llyn a'r Sarnau SAC area, which extends south round Bardsey extending as far south as Sarn Cynfelin, via the outer end of Sarn Badrig. So it includes Porthmadog Bay, Barmouth Bay and the Estuaries, all of which will be affected as Conservation interests gain the upper hand. There are clear proposal;s for No anchor zones, and mooring holders will soon be required to convert to eco-moorings. Access to the beach will be very limited for any whelled vehicles, including launching trollies.

Forget the fact it is a key stopover for Caernarfon Bar. Like Studland we will just be told we can no longer use it in the way we have, with the backing of law.

Porthdinllaen Seagrass Project - Eurosite

The UK’s biggest seagrass restoration scheme – in pictures

There is little more recent work due to the Pandemic preventing travel. Studland is being fought out from people's desks now.

I predicted 10 years ago Studland was the 'thin end of the wedge', and with the level of disinformation and false news generated by the likes of NGM, Packham, Humble and co in the press and media, popular opinion is firmly behind conservation interest and we have little chance now of retrieving any of our former freedoms.

Where else will be targeted for seagrass? Most of the North coast of the IoW from Priory Bay to Yarmouth, Beaulieu and Lymington Rivers - Beaulieu already has an anchor ban. Parts of Poole Harbour, Studland and Swanage Bays. Further west much of inshore Torbay including the area outside the harbour, Salcombe which already has protected its eelgrass locally, but look for expansion to areras where it 'ought to grow'. Cawsand and Jennycliff Bays are already in the news. Falmouth and Helford river estuaries as locals there know only too well and the Scilly Isles where it abounds in most of the anchorages.

Milfird Haven, specially in the small boat anchorage at Dale, as well as Skomer and Ramsey Islands, and of course Porth Dinllaen. Further north there are established seagrass meadows in Morecambe Bay and Solway Firth.

Up the East Coast it is present in varying amounts in most of the main estuaries of E Anglia, but very restricted by the turbid east coast mud/ water mix!

However, Conservation ambitions do not stop at eelgrass: almost any inshore marine habitat is likely to be targeted. There are advanced moves to protect the kelp beds off Selsey for example, while the beach a Pagham nature Reserve has been closed for many years following the discovery of Delphins snail in the shingle - Delphins being a tiny and very rare snail only found in a few locations (why do I get the feeling that size and rarity is somehow linked....?) Further closures here were ordered when it was found a colony of Terns had taken up residence on the shingle. Terns are ground nesting, and their eggs almost indistinguishable from the shingle. I have clear evidence that Seahorses are actually quite common a little way in offshore - too deep for NGM and his mates to go paddling. Over 50 were found in one pot haul just a few miles east of Studland.

The inshore fishing fleet keep very quiet about it as they know well they will lose their livelihoods if they report concentrations of rare species in the fishing grounds.

In the meantime RSPB still maintains that large moving objects (i.e. yachts) create significant disturbance to nesting birds, whether in the coastal marshes and saltings, or on cliff sites. They earnestly sought additional protection for nesting sites under MCZ status - until Gus Lewis of RYA pointed out that MCZ legislation applies below the HW mark, and few birds nest underwater!

In BORG, we have felt increasingly like the Dutch boy with is finger in the dike.... We actually got most of what we fought for at Studland if it had to become an MCZ. But predictably the second round will cut all that off for real or imagined infractions of the voluntary arrangements we fought for. But we did win a few years more freedom.

I predict that if not our children, then our grandchildren will never be able to enjoy our sport the way we do. Leisure boating will be ticketed, licensed, and subject to severe restrictions in the name of conservation. Looking further ahead I suggest that we will be restricted to allocated leisure boating areas inshore, linked to a chain of marinas and permitted anchorages.

The question for our grandchildren will not be 'is this a safe anchorage', but where CAN I anchor?

Conservation and ecology is taught in our schools, and rammed down our throats at every opportunity. There is little chance that the boating community will be left to get on with our sport unhindered any longer. Conservation is fast becoming a new religion with the great high priests at NE handing down edicts and directives that we can neither understand nor challenge, but must blindly obey while its evangelists rant and rave in the papers about the evils of non adherence to the creed.... and so far the public are swallowing it hook line and sinker.

Perhaps if you genuinely fear for the future of boating you should point the finger at the polluters and destroyers of habitat rather than the ecologists...

For one, I find it quite dismal that when I go on walks in the countryside I see few butterflies anymore. Insect numbers have plummeted 70% in parts of europe. The UKs only resident pod of killer whales hasn't had a calf in decades and is thoughts to be irretrievably poisoned by dioxins. I for one would welcome a good deal more conservation to be better able to enjoy nature in all its splendour when I do go sailing. If that means more restricted areas to go sailing in, so be it.

 

[dunedin]

In the end who is going to enforce it? When a boat comes alongside with an officious bod demanding your name address etc, what is he going to do if you just say unto him, "Go forth & multiply" in not so many words?
Nothing.

In which case I suspect legislation for compulsory yacht registration will be put in motion within a year. Such blocking action at Studland could cause much bigger legislative problems for yachtsmen, and lose all public sympathy

 

[oldharry]

Perhaps if you genuinely fear for the future of boating you should point the finger at the polluters and destroyers of habitat rather than the ecologists...

For one, I find it quite dismal that when I go on walks in the countryside I see few butterflies anymore. Insect numbers have plummeted 70% in parts of europe. The UKs only resident pod of killer whales hasn't had a calf in decades and is thoughts to be irretrievably poisoned by dioxins. I for one would welcome a good deal more conservation to be better able to enjoy nature in all its splendour when I do go sailing. If that means more restricted areas to go sailing in, so be it.

I also point at the huge damage being done in Studland to the eelgrass by having one of the highest nitrate levels in UK, as does Dr Unwin when he found it. But the boaters who cause minor disturbance to less than 1% of the eelgrass are the 'easy target'. And it really will make VERY little difference to the eelgrass which is already flourishing and healthy: I've seen and measured it in Studland, right across the centre of the anchorage.

But the MCZ is in place now, and if the voluntary arrangements dont work, compulsory arrangements will be brought in, which as Dunedin rightly points out will rapidly lead to much closer control of leisure boats and their owners, including registration, licensing and all that goes with it.

 

[Corbert-Beacon]

This is the zone as it is now
View attachment 134280



...andView attachment 134279View attachment 134280 from 1st June 2022
View attachment 134279 Also a downloadable leaflet giving the precise Lat and Long of the zones, from MMO:

https://assets.publishing.service.g...nt_data/file/1063955/Studland_Leaflet__1_.pdf

Much appreciated OH. Thank you. John

 

[RivalRedwing]

"Up the East Coast it is present in varying amounts in most of the main estuaries of E Anglia, but very restricted by the turbid east coast mud/ water mix! "

well I suppose that is a bit of good news for us on the East Coast, can't see that changing any time soon..

Thanks OH for the detail

 

[fifer]

I also point at the huge damage being done in Studland to the eelgrass by having one of the highest nitrate levels in UK, as does Dr Unwin when he found it. But the boaters who cause minor disturbance to less than 1% of the eelgrass are the 'easy target'. And it really will make VERY little difference to the eelgrass which is already flourishing and healthy: I've seen and measured it in Studland, right across the centre of the anchorage.

But the MCZ is in place now, and if the voluntary arrangements dont work, compulsory arrangements will be brought in, which as Dunedin rightly points out will rapidly lead to much closer control of leisure boats and their owners, including registration, licensing and all that goes with it.

Any valid points you might have about both the impact of nitrate heavy run-off or the actual extent of the eelgrass are somewhat lost in the unhinged rant against ecology and ecologists I'm afraid.

This may be an opportunity to examine the excessively cosy relationships between polluters such as water companies and large landowners, and the regulatory and legislative authorities who are all the real culprits here.

 

[doug748]

"Up the East Coast it is present in varying amounts in most of the main estuaries of E Anglia, but very restricted by the turbid east coast mud/ water mix! "

well I suppose that is a bit of good news for us on the East Coast, can't see that changing any time soon..

Thanks OH for the detail

You may find it is not the mud that causes the problem but indiscriminate anchoring and mooring by people in luxury yachts. : -)

Once Science is abandoned logic is not far behind, you are left with a species of Maoist collectivism were truth is what the man on the television says it is. I listen to conservationists and they seem to be offering a new context for a religious reawakening, taking more the role of spiritual leaders. Their key phrases, urgency, demons, codes of conduct and near worship of subhuman animal life, all point to moral certainties in a time of doubt.

This sinks in and people end up agreeing with nonsense because it resonates with the ordained texts. Post 31 is a fine example, a well meaning contributor has not followed the arguments but instinctively tells us that Conservation is the way forward; not the Science, just the word, on a banner.

PS

Yes three cheers for Dr Unsworth I am afraid that many of the others seem to be looking for conflict

.

 

[oldharry]

Seagrass needs sunlight to photosynthesise,. So will not thrive in very muddy water where sun light is blocked out.

 

[Chiara’s slave]

Only if you go abroad. There is no requirement for ssr if you stay in UK waters.

I can see that it’s not necessary to have part 1 at all for uk waters, but the additional info that came with mine said it was an offence, with no mention of where you were. I think, if you’re registered, you must display it. Of course, if its not on there nobody would know you were registered…

 

[Babylon]

Perhaps if you genuinely fear for the future of boating you should point the finger at the polluters and destroyers of habitat rather than the ecologists...

For one, I find it quite dismal that when I go on walks in the countryside I see few butterflies anymore. Insect numbers have plummeted 70% in parts of europe. The UKs only resident pod of killer whales hasn't had a calf in decades and is thoughts to be irretrievably poisoned by dioxins. I for one would welcome a good deal more conservation to be better able to enjoy nature in all its splendour when I do go sailing. If that means more restricted areas to go sailing in, so be it.

I absolutely agree with you, as I suspect would just about everyone else who loves wildlife and nature... except for your very last sentence, which is simply self-defeating and as flawed as the manipulated perspective through which the Studland Bay restrictions were steamrollered through.

Leisure boaters (like slope-soaring enthusiasts, amateur golfers and a whole host of other low-impact pastimes in open spaces) are simply low-hanging fruit for the determined, highly-organised, largely very well-funded and frequently politically-motivated environmental pressure groups and quangos. Our activities - as you rightly point out in your first paragraph - are extremely marginal in terms of impact on both the land and marine environment, but we're easy targets without the heavy armour of PR and political influence of the real polluters (industry, the car economy, agri-business, utilities, industrialised fishing, etc), and our sacrifice is needed to give the impression that something is being "done" however marginal or even (in the case of Studland Bay) scientifically contentious.