§ Richard Younger-RossTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what percentage of British waters ate(a) marine nature reserves and (b) closed to fishing. [185111]
§ Mr. BradshawThere are three Marine Nature Reserves (MNRs)—Strangford Lough in Northern Ireland (165 km2), Lundy in England (13.9 km2) and Skomer in Wales (13.24 km2). Data from the Joint Nature Conservation Committee's "Offshore Nature Project" gives the total area of UK territorial waters as 161,200 km2. The three MNRs together cover 0.12 per cent. of territorial waters.
Of the three MNRs, only one, Lundy, includes an area within it which is closed to fishing covering 3.3 km2 The remaining MNRs are closed only to certain types of fishing: Skomer MNR is closed to beam trawling, dredging and scallop fishing by any means; Strangford Lough MNR has a temporary ban in place on fishing with mobile gear. In addition there are small areas closed to fishing as a result of oil and gas explorations and defence activities.
There are also a number of areas where restrictions on certain types of fishing are in place to protect both habitats and species. These include: the Darwin Mounds cold water coral reefs where bottom trawling is prohibited in an area covering 1,381 km2; the Mackerel Box, a large area in the Western Channel and the Cornish peninsular where mainstream mackerel fishing is prohibited; the Sandeel Box, off the north-east coast of the UK where industrial fishing is banned to protect the food source of a range of predators including sea-birds; and, 37 bass nursery areas around the coast of England and Wales. Data on inshore and offshore restricted areas is not collated centrally to enable calculation to be made of the percentage of UK territorial waters encompassed by these areas.