The government have just released their proposal for the first release of Marine Conservation Zones for 2013 and to their shame they have left of, one of the most important and threatened areas for Spiny Seahorses in the UK and possibly Europe, Studland Bay. The bay has been put forward as a proposed MPZ at some later stage but not in the first tranché, which means it could be years before it gets protected; meanwhile the seagrass bed has been proven (without doubt) to be fragmenting as has been shown by the recent report by MAIA and by Dr Ken Collins paper released a couple of years ago. yet the authorities sit back and let this vital site for Spiny Seahorses be destroyed. Without the seagrass at Studland there will be no spiny Seahorses there, they rely on this vitally important habitat.
In 2008 we found over 50 seahorses and each year since the number has been dropping rapidly to this year where we only found 11.
We need your help please, go onto the website below and lobby them to include studland into the first tranché of MPZ’s for 2013 before it is too late. Meanwhile we will be resubmitting our data (for the third time) to try and get them to change their minds.If there is a site in the UK that should qualify first and foremost for protection it is Studland Bay. Not only does it have the seahorses (both species), it also has the fragile seagrass, English Oysters, Undulate Rays, truncated anenomes and a host of other threatened and endangered species.
http://www.defra.gov.uk/consult/2012/12/13/marine-conservation-zones-1212/
Make you voice heard and let them know how you feel, before the seahorses are gone from Studland forever; it is not too late, we have until march 2013 to get them to change their minds.
