A SCHEME to protect British fisheries and wildlife with a network of marine conservation zones could be scuppered after the French government announced it will use EU procedures to block them.
The zones are intended to act as “national parks of the sea”, with activities such as sea-bed trawling or drift-netting banned if they threaten features such as reefs. Environmental groups that have spent a decade campaigning for the zones are dismayed by the French decision, which follows last year’s decision to cut the 127 proposed zones to just 31.
Now France has given notice that it will lodge objections to at least four of the remaining zones, two in the English Channel and two southwest of the Isles of Scilly. Under the common fisheries policy this means the proposals will have to be referred to the EU, where they could be deadlocked for months, or even years.
The chances are of course that many fishermen working in range of these areas may well be supportive of such a move as the grounds are also fished by local vessels!