The Wildlife Trust's North Sea Wildlife Project

North Sea Stakeholders Attend MCZ Meeting

North Sea conservationists and sea users were yesterday given the chance to express their thoughts on the process of designating Marine Conservation Zones (MCZ’s) in the North Sea at a large group meeting in Hull. The meeting was organised by Net Gain, the group tasked with engaging North Sea stakeholders into this process. A wide range of representatives from all sectors were in attendance. These included, amongst others, Non Governmental Organisations (such as The Wildlife Trust and RSPB), Commercial fishermen; the seafood industry; the renewables industry; the aggregate industry; oil and gas industry; academics; recreational sea users (including divers and sea anglers) and government bodies.

Through interactive workshops, members from different sectors worked together to outline the principles they felt should be reflected in a successful MCZ network. This was followed by a workshop considering what sectors were best placed to input information and expertise into outlining potential MCZ sites at a local level.  There will be four local level hub groups established across the North Sea region. All local groups with be tasked with using scientific and in cases socio-economic information in order to consider where possible conservation sites may be placed locally. It is in these groups where the bulk of decision making regarding the location of MCZ’s will be made. Attendees were then tasked with recommending who should be represented on the Stakeholder Advisory Panel, an overarching regional group. This panel, most likely composed of 12-15 individuals, will collate and synthesise the hub group recommendations, ensuring consistency amongst the regions and verifying that science is correct. They will also keep the four regions in contact with each other and ultimately sign off the final MCZ recommendations before being sent to the Secretary of State for official sign off in 2012.

All the information and opinion gathered during the meeting is being summarised into a report by Net Gain, for distribution amongst attendees and their sector.    

For further information please refer to http://www.netgainmcz.org/