Lyme Bay Reefs devastated.

17/03/2007 00:00:00 Shocking video footage taken by Devon Wildlife Trust shows massive destruction from scallop dredging to the reefs in Lyme Bay, in an area subject to a voluntary agreement not to dredge.

Click here to view the video.

Government U-turn on Lyme Bay reefs protection.

Paul Gompertz, director of DWT said, 'What is happening here is the sickness of the planet being acted out before our very eyes. All around the British coast and across the globe marine habitats have been destroyed. We are making deserts of the seabed as surely as intensive logging and agriculture have made deserts on land'.

DWT and English Nature are calling for an enforced no-dredging area covering 60sq. miles – less than 10% of Lyme Bay. This would enable habitats to regenerate. After extensive surveying and consultation with fishermen over ten years, DWT has established that this area represents the minimum effective area to promote recovery. Paul Gompertz continued, “This is a national test case for the marine environment. What is needed is for the government to take decisive and urgent action and create an enforceable, no-dredge zone. If we cannot save Lyme Bay, where we have clear evidence for the destruction already caused, then there is no hope for the remainder of the offshore seabed. This is Ben Bradshaw’s ‘Blue Planet moment’ – an opportunity to show that the government takes the environment and the need to maintain the planet’s life support systems seriously”.

The United Nations report ‘Living Beyond Our Means’ calls for additional protected areas, particularly in marine systems, and states that “everyone in the world depends on nature and ecosystem services to provide the conditions for a decent, healthy, and secure life. Human activities have taken the planet to the edge of a massive wave of species extinctions…threatening our own well-being”.

Courtesy of the Devon Wildlife Trust.