Marine Conservation
The seas belonging to the United Kingdom extend over 867,000 sq km (335,000 sq miles) - more than three times its land area. Our seas vary in depth from the shallow waters of the southern North Sea, down to over 3,000m in some areas of the North West coast of Scotland. They range in climate from the warm temperate waters of the south-west approaches, to deep sub-arctic waters between the Faroe Isles and Norway, where the water temperature rarely exceeds 0degC.
A significant proportion of the UK's total biodiversity is found in the seas. This means the UK's marine environment is a huge part of our nature conservation heritage and should be protected with equal importance as the wildlife found in terrestrial areas. These seas are also vital to the UK's economy and quality of life, through its contribution to primary energy supplies, ship-borne trade, fisheries, marine aggregates, tourism and recreation. However, all of these competing interests can have a significant impact on our marine biodiversity.
Marine Protected Sites
At present, only 2% of the UK's seas are covered by marine protected areas. These include European Marine Sites, Marine Reserves and other designations which afford varying levels of protection from development and/or activity.
The UK Government's vision for the marine environment is for clean healthy, safe, productive and biologically diverse oceans and seas. By 2010 the UK's aim is to have an ecologically coherent network of Marine Protected Areas.
A component of delivering this aim is the UK Government's commitment to establish an ecologically coherent and well-managed network of marine protected areas (MPAs) by 2012. Such a network will enable the UK to meet commitments under international conventions and contribute to measures aimed at achieving good environmental status and ultimately a healthy and biodiverse marine environment.
The UK MPA network will comprise of existing European Marine Sites (made up of Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) and Special Protection Areas (SPAs)) designated under the EC Habitats and Birds Directives, and new national MPAs, which the UK Government and Devolved Administrations propose to introduce through new legislation such as the Marine Bill.