Our seas are not in good shape but sea life could rebound with a network of 'marine protected areas'
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Did you know that Ireland’s territorial sea area is about 10 times that of our land?
But while we have been creating national parks and nature reserves on land since the 1960s the idea of doing the same at sea still hasn’t really caught on. It’s 15 years since Ireland, along with other member states of the EU agreed to create a network of ‘marine protected areas’ (MPAs) as part of a broader effort to protect the oceans from human activity. Last year, for the first time, the Government introduced the draft of a new law that would allow for the identification and management of MPAs, something that will hopefully see the protection of 30% of our marine waters within MPAs by the end of the decade.
Our seas are not in good shape. Overfished, polluted with effluent and plastics and, increasingly, warming and acidifying due to the effects of fossil fuel burning, there is an urgent need to protect what we have and restore what has been damaged. MPAs, when they are carefully located and managed, are an essential tool for helping to achieve this. Areas of sea that are designated for nature in Ireland so far cover only a little over 2% of our waters, one of the lowest levels for any maritime nation, although an announcement before Christmas by Minister for State Malcolm Noonan will bring this to more than 8%. These are designated under the EU’s Habitats Directive for very specific features while the new MPA law will allow for a much broader range of reasons for designation, including the protection of entire ecosystems.
But even so, those areas that we have are merely lines on maps — what conservationists refer to as ‘paper parks’, because there no management measures, or because harmful activities like industrial fishing still go on inside them. Paper parks might meet paper targets but they provide no real protection for marine life. In contrast, in countries where MPAs are actually implemented, an incredible rebound of nature has occurred. When fishing pressure is relieved, fish and other sea creatures frequently increase in abundance by many hundreds of percent! Ironically, this has been shown to be good for fishers as the increased numbers spill over into areas where fishing is allowed.
Fishing is by far the greatest impact on the sea. In Europe, there is virtually no corner of the sea that is safe from hooks, nets, traps, and trawls. For the best protection, MPAs need to be ‘strictly protected’, that is, there should be no fishing pressure at all. The EU has said that it wants 10% of seas to fall into this category by 2030 — a fairly modest target given the climate and biodiversity crisis we find ourselves in. These are sometimes called ‘no take zones’ but some MPAs can also allow for modest levels of low-impact fishing, typically with pots or lines. The most damaging impacts, for example bottom trawling, which scrapes a net across the sea floor scooping up all in its wake, needs to be phased out but must never be allowed inside an MPA worthy of the name. But this also applies to ‘supertrawlers’ and other types of industrial vessels. Other activities will depend upon the reason why the MPA is designated. However, if we don’t put the health of the ecosystem first, then the point of MPAs will be lost.
It's not only fishing. We may also want MPAs which are quiet zones for marine life (the sea these days is a surprisingly noisy place), there may be restrictions on pleasure boats dropping anchor on sensitive habits, such as seagrass meadows, or we may want MPAs that are for climate resilience — protecting coastal zones or storing carbon in reefs or carbon-rich sediments. MPAs should not allow offshore wind energy or mining (there is a big push on currently to allow for mining the ocean floor for minerals) due to the level of disturbance that they are likely to bring, but even if we meet our target of protecting 30% of the sea that still leaves 70% for important human uses like renewable energy.
But it would be mistaken to look at MPAs as just a list of things which are prohibited. MPAs offer an immense opportunity for us to reconnect with the sea and can deliver huge benefits for biodiversity. We depend utterly on a healthy ocean, it produces half the oxygen we breathe, and it will look after us if we look after it. The fishing sector is already facing a grim future, having suffered from chronic overfishing, low quotas, and the impacts of Brexit. But MPAs offer a great opportunity for coastal communities where sustainable livelihoods are rooted in nature recovery. More fish means more fishing, although in the medium-term the principles of a just transition will need to be applied for those who are asked to tie up their boats.
Management of MPAs needs local participation, particularly those that are near the shore, and this means giving communities and sea-users an active say in day-to-day decision-making. Places like California, where this has been done, have seen not only a rebound in sea life but also a sense of ownership and pride among those communities.
In the coming months, the MPA Bill will make its way through the Oireachtas. It’s really important that politicians get this right and environmental groups have already raised concerns that the wording in the Bill is too weak, with too few safeguards and no clear lines of responsibility. We wanted MPAs to be identified before wind energy projects started applying for planning permission but unfortunately this didn’t happen. Ultimately, we need good planning and enforcement if we are to achieve decarbonisation of the economy alongside the protection and restoration of biodiversity.
- Pádraic Fogarty is an ecologist and environmental scientist and campaigns officer with Irish Wildlife Trust