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solonavi 22 July 2008 Campaign, Habitat, Protected Sites 279 views No Comment Print This Post  Email This Post

independent.co.uk

Lobsters have boomed in Britain’s first marine nature reserve, where fishing is banned. The large crustaceans have soared in numbers in the “no-take zone” around Lundy Island in the Bristol Channel, which was established five years ago as a prototype for sea-life reserves around Britain.

Lobsters of takeable size are now nearly seven times more abundant in the protected zone than they are elsewhere around the island, or in fishing zones off the coast of north Devon and south Wales, says a survey by Natural England. In the other areas, a string of 10 lobster pots produces one lobster, on average; in the Lundy no-take zone the average is 6.7.

The population increase is now having a “spill-over” effect into waters which can be fished, showing that conservation can strongly benefit fisheries.

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Fishermen are a little more sceptical. “It’s difficult to say whether it’s helped us – we didn’t used to fish in there much anyway, except close to shore, but it was always good for lobsters,” said John Barbeary, whose lobster and whelk boat works out of Ilfracombe.

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The idea behind the no-take zone is to try and return the seabed to the state it was in before modern fishing. “The site wasn’t only set up to protect lobsters – it’s to protect the whole environment,” said Chris Davis, Natural England’s senior specialist in marine policy. The Marine Bill, scheduled for next year, is likely to designate a series of conservation areas around Britain that will be representative of all types of marine habitats.

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Government scientists are canvassing opinions on how big such zones should be, and whether, in a given area, one big zone might be more effective than several small ones.

The number of lobsters around Lundy have risen since the fishing ban