Protecting our ocean

Much of Cornwall’s beauty sits on the coast – now a new scheme will extend protection to our seas and their many and varied inhabitants

Much has been made of the potential positive impact of the Covid-19 lockdown on our wildlife and sea life – so it seems fitting that Cornwall looks set to earn protection and potentially the implements for the long-term recovery for our oceans and its inhabitants.

To mark World Ocean Day in June, a review recommended Highly Protected Marine Areas (HPMA) to become an essential part of the UK network and called on the government to introduce HPMAs within existing protected areas.

So what is a HPMA? “Existing Marine Protected Areas are limited in their ability to restore habitats and wildlife because their remit to protect nature only extends as far as maintaining the status quo,” explains one of the review panels, Joan Edwards who is director of marine conservation at The Wildlife Trusts. “In these areas, only some of the most damaging activities are prevented and even then, only in some locations.

“In Highly Protected Marine Areas, all damaging activities including fishing, dredging, construction, and sea angling would be banned. This new type of designation means that nature could properly recover. HPMAs could be monitored to allow us to understand what a thriving seabed and restored marine life really means. They could set a bar against which other sorts of protected areas could be measured.”