Studland Bay summary

[Seven Spades]

If you go to a court of law there is a phrase de minimis non curat lex the court does not care for small or trifling matters.

So for example take a rugby field, the kicker digs his heal into the pitch to enable the ball to stand on end to take a penalty, does he damage the pitch? Well yes and no, in the literal sense yes, but if you stand back and look at the pitch is it damaged no, because the damage is trifling. It is the old man in the street test, to the man in the street is the ruby pitch damaged by the kickers heal, no then on the same basis anchoring in Studland bay is not damaging either.

The problem as I see it is that the people who are interpreting the rules/guidelines are taking them literally, and I do not think that that is probably a lawful interpretation. My guess is that ST is going to be correct anchoring is going to be banned because the law is being interpreted far too literally.

I think that the RYA on our behalf should seek a judicial review if and when an MCZ is imposed upon Studland

 

[oldharry]

The news so far is good: there is now a call backed by the Science Advisory Panel for an 'in depth review' by Natural England and JNCC of the data and evidence provided for the whole MCZ process. Impossible to say how much Fireball's BORG report, and SBPAs recent input has influenced that decision, but the timing suggests we may have had quite a lot to do with it. Also, those who will be responsible for that review have asked to meet Studlanders and BORG - so at last, the people who matter seem to be beginning to listen to us.

I know that RYA is keeping a very close eye on progress as it has all along, and will continue to take whatever steps it can to protect our position. At this stage the aim is to try to get basic agreements in place now so that at the Public consultation stage scheduled for next autumn we are ironing out wrinkles, rather than arguing fundamantals.

 

[Twister_Ken]

Keep up the good work. Please!

 

[ARCO7]

Excellent News

Excellent News OldHarry ! I am so glad these persons have seen sense to go and talk to the people who really matter in this conflict.
Dorset Police Marine Section are also cutting back their department after this years Olympics due to the UK wide cutbacks and we'll be lucky if they manage to keep out on the water the way things are looking .
I doubt very much if they'll have the time or funding to enforce a no anchoring in Studland Bay Byelaw as some "rubber ronies" want .
The Euro zone is on the verge of collapse and a European Credit Crunch is expected to arrive within the next 6 weeks ,so that will hit the UK economy hard . There is an ever increasing chance that funds for these "projects" like Studland Bay MCZ will have to be redirected to keeping the basic public sector services solvent and operational.
On a brighter note, this mild winter might see the early return of the Seahorses to the seagrass meadows in the Solent and surrounding areas ,including Studland and we might even have a decent summer .

 

[digbyseadog]

one of the local sailboats

We have a sailboat 42 ft and use studland a lot we try to drop anchor in a non reed area

On board we have an infa red under water camera that we lower at night to see if anything is moving downstairs and ...... it is very little I have not seen any seahorses dead or alive washed up on the shoreline Studland is one of the most popular anchorages along the south coast we stop for days at a time.

We are also divers and again have night dived off the back of the yacht and day dived but ...... nothing in the sea horse dept

I am told there are large area's of sea grass in Poole harbour with sea horse life perhaps the better area

I do wonder that if sea horses are evident are they there because of the boats bring them a easy food sauce

More action in Holes bay on our mooring anemanies! and Turbot in the sand diving birds crabs and a host of other fish and a seal from time to time! Thought it was a black Lab !

 

[ARCO7]

Wild Life

Underwater cam ! Now there's an idea ! You can get them on ebay for a modest sum and very handy to have if you are a boat owner.
Might give this a go ,as its useful for checking your prop and keel .
I see the SHT are now pleeding for funds on their website and states that it now costs £45,000 a year to run the trust , so I guess that includes pay increases inline with inflation ?
I also see from the Save Studland Bay facebook groups and community that two survey boats have been in the area , FPV MORVEN and the NOC's RV DISCOVERY .
Are they searching for the millions of pounds that have been thrown into Poole Bay and Studland Bay in recent years ?
There's not much to show for the huge amount of public money thats gone down to Davey Jones's locker out there , well, barr half an infamous surf reef , six yellow No Anchor zone buoys ,two laptops ,a leaflet,a carsticker and a few survey reports.
So surely there must be a big old treasure chest resting on the sea bed out there with a couple of million pound coins in it ?
If only they could have left the whole of Poole Bay/Studland Bay alone ,as it was ,we'd at least be able to afford to keep an NHS hospital running for a couple more years.

 

[digbyseadog]

CAMERA

Maplins electronics uk make a unit you can buy it order it in their shops £60

camera with 60ft cable infa red works great at night also includes 6 inch black and white screen tv all in a smart bag with battery pack/charger all self contained so you can even use it in your rib or even round the house under the floorboards for looking the camera has an adjustable weight that allows you to look up down level in the water £60 i think i paid last year its great fun to watch a gannet submarine past the camera chasing fish or crabs on the bottom at night turbot in the sand but ....... No pesky seahorses in studland!

You can even plug it into you video recorder.

 

[Seajet]

ARCO7,

there's one simple answer; 'Career Conservationist'...

 

[Twister_Ken]

ARCO7,

there's one simple answer; 'Career Conservationist'...

Is that someone who has a career in conservation, or somebody who wants to conserve their career?

 

[Seajet]

Is that someone who has a career in conservation, or somebody who wants to conserve their carer?

Twister Ken,

a 'career conservationist' is someone who will use and if necessary distort any figures handy, to keep a cushy well paid lifestyle - ideally involving TV appearances - without actually doing anything useful; see also under ' waste of oxygen '....

 

[Daedelus]

Just got this, no time to relax as they keep up the emotional bit. Do you like the way they twist public support to mean evidence?


"England - moving the goalposts
The establishment of the network of 127 protected sites in England in 2012 is in jeopardy. Despite clear public support, and involving over 1 million people in a process to select sites which cost the taxpayer £8 million, Defra are now saying they haven’t been presented with enough evidence and are letting the target of designating a network slip to 2013. They say they will then designate ‘some’ sites that have ‘adequate’ evidence. We will be campaigning hard in 2012 for designation of all 127 sites and there will be plenty of opportunities for you to get involved. We’ll keep you posted with regular updates.

We had an amazing response to the countdown on closing YSYV voting in England last autumn, with about 2,000 votes streaming in during the final ten days! Thanks to everyone who voted, shared links on Facebook and tweeted about Your Seas Your Voice to push votes over the 25,000 mark. We’ve read and analysed every single comment and counted every vote and we’re letting the government know exactly what you have to say. Your points of view have been shared with the regional MCZ projects and you can download the summary report."

 

[Tranona]

Yes, a tactic well used by SHT. Ask people who know absolutely nothing about the subject whether you should harm seahorses and the answer is NO and this constitutes evidence and support for their argument. Hence the provocative "reports" in the local papers to get "public support"!

 

[Robin]

I had the same email urging me to vote. When I last looked it seemed to me that they were counting any vote for or against as 'support' so I didn't revisit.

 

[Seajet]

I had the same email urging me to vote. When I last looked it seemed to me that they were counting any vote for or against as 'support' so I didn't revisit.

I pointed this out to Finding Sanctuary, Bournemouth Echo, RYA & MMO, only the RYA seemed to be interested; possibly it was uncomfortable for the others, agenda - wise at the time; MMO seem to be more clued up nowadays, hopefully...

 

[oldharry]

Trouble is MCS are still talking as though they invented the MCZ scheme - talking about their 'recommended sites' around the coast, as though all the work done by FS, BS and the rest was actually done by them, so that the YSYV vote actually has no standing within DEFRA who are currently engaged in assessing the mass of data presented by the four regions.

More importantly, thanks to people like Fireball using his expertise to challenge some of the assumptions that have been made in places like Studland, the decision makers have realised that people like us, Studland Bay Protection Association, RYA and so on are not just trying to protect our own interests, but do actually know what we are talking about when it comes to local knowledge, as we have all been saying all along.

As far as the £8m squids are concerned, having seen at first hand the hardship cutbacks have caused my former clients, I am simply disgusted at the way conservationists of the career variety Seajet defines above are happy to go on spending government money as though there is no tomorrow. When we challenged one such with his plans to spend another £1m in Studland protecting the seaweed, he just could/would not see where we coming from, and became quite abusive at our unwillingness to see his scheme as a higher financial priority than hospitals, schools, policing etc!

 

[Twister_Ken]

Probably more seahorse bollox from SHT.

http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/9491394.Rare_seahorse_found_in_Purbeck/?ref=fbsend

 

[Seajet]

Twister Ken,

thanks for that succinct and 100% accurate summary !

 

[Tranona]

This is probably Neil diversifying into the harbour now he is on the back foot over Studland. For those of you not familiar with the harbour, the Arne reserve, although close as the crow (or is it Pegasus?) flies to Studland is a long way by water - and could not be more different in all other respects.

You would think he would want to supprss news of sitings in other locations as it might give the impression that seahorses are not that rare!

 

[Seajet]

Tranona,

I was surprised in reading the SHT founding blurb that 'they' admitted Seahorses are all around, just tried to make out that Studland is unique in having them breeding - and I know what I think about that theory, I've mentioned before that if the wee beasties were somewhere like Shoeburyness to 'work' with, rather than possibly the most attractive beach in the UK, they might not get the attention !

 

[Tranona]

Even more ironic for "environmentalists", if you read SHT full statistics their most popular habitat (based on their observations) is man made environments like marinas.

You only observe seahorses where you look for them, and looking for them is much easier in some places than others. When I asked one of the others (no prizes for guessing who) whether there were any seahorses living in the extensive eel grass beds in Southampton Water, which we could see out of the window, there was a deathly hush. Much better to get in a minibus with a load of students for a day out in Studland!