UK Government Fails to Offer Greater Protection to Marine Mammals

Nina Jones, Protected Area Warden at Kent Wildlife Trust reacts to the governments long awaited report on Protecting Marine Mammals in the UK and Abroad.

The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee published on the 31st October the Government’s response to its long awaited report, Protecting Marine Mammals in the UK and Abroad.

The report, published in June, highlighted opportunities to offer greater protection to cetaceans by means such as tackling the problem of bycatch and introducing primary legislation to improve protection of marine mammals in UK waters.

Data from the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) show that, globally, 34 of the 92 cetacean (marine mammal) species are designated as threatened or near threatened. Four endangered species, the blue whale, sei whale, fin whale and sperm whale, and one critically endangered species, the North Atlantic right whale, can be found in UK waters. Marine mammals suffer from a multitude of threats including bycatch and entanglement, commercial and hunting practices, collisions with vessel, climate change and pollution.

The EFRA report made several recommendations to the Government to help tackle the decline of these vulnerable marine mammals. These included:
 

  • Adding seals to Schedule 5 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act to give them legal protection from disturbance as soon as possible.
  • Close the legal loophole on the transit of cetacean products through UK ports.
  • Develop primary legislation for marine mammal protection.
  • Launch a new initiative to encourage technological solutions to improve marine mammal monitoring data collection.
  • Phase in mandatory marine mammal bycatch reporting from fisheries.
  • Proactively engage with countries that hunt marine mammals such as Norway, Japan, Faroe Islands and Iceland and to ensure any new UK trade deal should include a clause on protecting marine mammals.
We welcome the Government’s commitment to the protection of marine mammals. However, our committee urged new legislation, increased funding and faster action to mitigate the pressing challenges on these valuable species and we are disappointed to note that in rejecting our recommendations the Government does not appear to be demonstrating an awareness of the necessary urgency and scale of the problems.
Chair of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, Sir Robert Goodwill

Recommendations were rejected

Sadly however recommendations from the EFRA Committee were largely rejected. In regard to bycatch, the EFRA Committee said that it is pleased to see that a consultation has taken place on extending remote electronic monitoring, however there was refusal to introduce mandatory bycatch monitoring implemented by a strategic plan from DEFRA. All other recommendations were discarded. This is despite the relevant current UK legislation and regulations being far below the standards provided by other countries, such as the 1972 US Marine Mammal Protection Act.

These recommendations would have offered a fantastic opportunity to increase protection for vulnerable wales, dolphins and seals, of which we are lucky enough to see both grey and harbour seals on the Kent Coast. Marine mammals are struggling against a multitude of threats including climate change, pollution, and on top of this seals are affected by disturbance on a daily bases.

We're seeing wildlife disturbance

It is a real shame that the strong endorsement in the EFRA report for the Joint Nature Conservation Committee’s recommendation to give seals the same protection as other marine mammals by adding them to Schedule 5 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act was ignored by the Government. This would have been a way of offering some protection from reckless disturbance, of which we are seeing increasing reports of around our coastlines, including at some of Kent Wildlife Trust’s reserves such as Pegwell and Sandwich Bay NNR. Harbour seals are already in decline in parts of North East Scotland and South East England and thousands of seals risk life threatening injuries and wasting precious energy every year as a result of human disturbance.

This is just one example of how nature is in crisis in the UK but Kent Wildlife Trust’s #WilderKent 2030 Strategy sets out a framework for how we can work together to save it. Our mission is to increase wildlife abundance and climate resilience across 30% of Kent's land and sea.

By working with communities and partners, we believe that we can save and restore our natural world. We will continue to campaign to see laws offer more protection to marine mammals which have an important role in contributing to the maintenance of a healthy ocean balance upon which all other life depends.

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