oldharry
Well-known member
Where have we got to?
Not a lot is happening just now while DEFRA looks at all the evidence, in preparation for the White Paper and 12 week Public Consultation, due in mid December. We continue to question NE about their 'Final Report to the Government', and to challenge the fact that they completely ignore the Seastar Survey in that report. Reason given it was published 'too late' for inclusion.
The Final Report' listed Studland and other eelgrass anchorages as 'high priority' for protection due to ongoing damage from 'anthropogenic interference' - i.e anchoring!
In the meantime we await the publication of another delayed report - the MAIA report on Studland Eelgrass. This is an EU funded in depth study of Studland eelgrass, in which both BORG and SBPA had a small but we hope significant input. If it goes the way we expect, it could turn the whole NE anchor damage argument upside down.
MMO has called another 'Studland Workshop' meeting late in November, by which time we should have the MAIA report. MMO has the task of deciding how each MCZ will be managed, so the Studland workshop is now key in the whole S Coast MCZ anchorage debate. What is decided for Studland will be the pattern for everywhere else that has Eelgrass - Osborne Bay, Bembridge and Priory Bay, the Exe, Plymouth, Falmouth, Helford and the Scillies. BORG will have two people there, alongside representatives from Studland Village, Poole Yacht Clubs and the RYA.
What happens next?
Nov 2012 MMO Studland workshop
Dec 2012: Publication of DEFRA White Paper on MCZs
Dec 2012 - Feb 2013 Public Consultation period on MCZs
Spring 2013 on: MCZ recommendations passed to Minster for designation. The Minister has promise to examine each area before decision, so it should not be just a 'rubber stamp' exercise.
Designation may take some time for the more controversial areas, but the MCZs must be in place by 2015 to comply with EU agreements.
As each area is designated it will be passed to the MMO who will decide on Management measures. In other words, it is the MMO who will decide what to do about Studland's anchoring problem, if it is designated. Likewise it will be MMO who decide how to manage the Falmouth race area, Osborne Bay and others.
How will it be managed? Who may be affected?
MMO is the enforcing authority for MCZs controlling any activity allowed in them.
It is a sobering thought that if the MCZ recommendations were passed as they stand in the NE Final Report, there would be NO OPEN ANCHORAGES in the E Solent, outside the recognised harbours. Almost the entire N and E coast of the IoW would be a no anchor zone. West Solent would fare rather better with the anchorage inside Hurst./ Keyhaven, Calshot and Beaulieu River lower reaches anchorage remaining open, but with a question mark over the anchorage outside Newtown and up the NW IOW coast.. NE still want to close down Newtown River altogether, but have bowed to pressure from ALL the 'stakeholders' there for the moment.
Not a lot is happening just now while DEFRA looks at all the evidence, in preparation for the White Paper and 12 week Public Consultation, due in mid December. We continue to question NE about their 'Final Report to the Government', and to challenge the fact that they completely ignore the Seastar Survey in that report. Reason given it was published 'too late' for inclusion.
The Final Report' listed Studland and other eelgrass anchorages as 'high priority' for protection due to ongoing damage from 'anthropogenic interference' - i.e anchoring!
In the meantime we await the publication of another delayed report - the MAIA report on Studland Eelgrass. This is an EU funded in depth study of Studland eelgrass, in which both BORG and SBPA had a small but we hope significant input. If it goes the way we expect, it could turn the whole NE anchor damage argument upside down.
MMO has called another 'Studland Workshop' meeting late in November, by which time we should have the MAIA report. MMO has the task of deciding how each MCZ will be managed, so the Studland workshop is now key in the whole S Coast MCZ anchorage debate. What is decided for Studland will be the pattern for everywhere else that has Eelgrass - Osborne Bay, Bembridge and Priory Bay, the Exe, Plymouth, Falmouth, Helford and the Scillies. BORG will have two people there, alongside representatives from Studland Village, Poole Yacht Clubs and the RYA.
What happens next?
Nov 2012 MMO Studland workshop
Dec 2012: Publication of DEFRA White Paper on MCZs
Dec 2012 - Feb 2013 Public Consultation period on MCZs
Spring 2013 on: MCZ recommendations passed to Minster for designation. The Minister has promise to examine each area before decision, so it should not be just a 'rubber stamp' exercise.
Designation may take some time for the more controversial areas, but the MCZs must be in place by 2015 to comply with EU agreements.
As each area is designated it will be passed to the MMO who will decide on Management measures. In other words, it is the MMO who will decide what to do about Studland's anchoring problem, if it is designated. Likewise it will be MMO who decide how to manage the Falmouth race area, Osborne Bay and others.
How will it be managed? Who may be affected?
MMO is the enforcing authority for MCZs controlling any activity allowed in them.
It is a sobering thought that if the MCZ recommendations were passed as they stand in the NE Final Report, there would be NO OPEN ANCHORAGES in the E Solent, outside the recognised harbours. Almost the entire N and E coast of the IoW would be a no anchor zone. West Solent would fare rather better with the anchorage inside Hurst./ Keyhaven, Calshot and Beaulieu River lower reaches anchorage remaining open, but with a question mark over the anchorage outside Newtown and up the NW IOW coast.. NE still want to close down Newtown River altogether, but have bowed to pressure from ALL the 'stakeholders' there for the moment.
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