Marine Conservation Society view

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Pre-Brexit situation

The Marine Conservation Society sees that national boundaries are irrelevant to any form of pollution or marine wildlife. Therefore, we need supra-national governance, legal frameworks and cooperation to achieve shared environmental standards. EU membership has delivered substantial and largely effective conservation of the marine environment. Thanks to EU Directives:

We don’t spend British seaside holidays swimming in sewage due to water quality standards under the EU Bathing Water Directive;
The best bits of our seas are protected through designated special nature reserves, known as Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) under the EU Habitats and Birds Directives;
Countries across the EU must work together to protect and improve the quality of the sea and all that it contains. This is achieved through adoption of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD); and
Commercial fisheries must not cause overfishing by 2020. Also, the discarding of commercial species must end by 2019. Both actions are due to the radically reformed Common Fisheries Policy (CFP).

Civil society has additional and effective means to hold the UK Government to account on how well it looks after our environment. While we have some national marine legislation, notably the UK Marine & Coastal Access Act and Marine (Scotland) Act, these are primarily to fill gaps in EU law and do not replace it.

Implications of Brexit

The real crux with Brexit will be to maintain the momentum for healthy seas and sustainable fisheries. This is essential to help deliver UK ambitions for a productive, healthy marine environment that supports thriving coastal communities and a profitable fishing industry.

MCS input to government

The UK Government has stated that it wants our exit from the EU to be a “Green Brexit”. MCS laid out its views in a letter that it sent to Defra ministers following the publication of the Great Repeal Bill.

For our seas this means achieving the Government’s vision for “clean, healthy, safe, productive and biologically diverse oceans and seas. As a global leader, we must remain committed to environmental laws befitting an advanced society in the 21st century and as an island nation we need to lead the way on marine management and sustainable fishing. Brexit offers us the opportunity to establish ourselves as world leaders in this area, building upon the positive trends we are currently seeing in UK waters.

Source: Marine Conservation Society, Ministerial Briefing, July 2017

The MCS letter expands on these goals. MCS believes that to achieve this vision, the governments of the UK must, as a priority:

Ensure that all EU environmental laws become an enforceable part of the UK’s laws, including EU jurisprudence and EU law principles such as the precautionary principle, the polluter pays principle and the principle of prevention at source.
- This needs to cover all laws critical for the management of our seas including the Bathing Waters Directive, the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive, the Water Framework Directive, the Marine Strategy Framework Directive and the Habitats and Wild Birds Directives.
Limit the use of delegated legislation in the EU (Withdrawal) Bill 2017-2019 to ensure faithful conversion of EU laws into UK laws.
- Make sure that the use of such powers is time limited and subject to parliamentary scrutiny, with all non-technical changes to be made by primary legislation.
Ensure that all EU-derived environmental laws are properly implemented and enforced, with new governance arrangements, not just judicial review, and that they can only be amended by primary legislation.
Ensure that relevant EU institutions that implement and enforce EU environmental rules are effectively replaced with UK institutions and that liaison on cross border issues is fostered.
Take a strategic UK approach, jointly developed and mutually agreed by all four administrations.
- Provide a collaborative framework for co-ordinating marine and fisheries management in accordance with the current devolved settlement, with the aim of achieving Good Environmental Status in all UK seas.

Specific marine conservation actions

This means that the UK needs to:

Ensure new domestic fisheries laws deliver sustainable fisheries.
Complete an ecologically coherent network of well-managed marine protected areas (MPAs). Meet EU and international commitments. Build on the faithful conversion of (the entirety of) the Habitats & Wild Birds Directives into UK domestic laws.
Uphold and effectively implement into UK laws all our obligations under international environmental treaties so that they can be given effect in the laws of England & Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland, and are legally enforceable.
Continue to take action to reduce marine litter. Following on from the successful carrier bag charge we welcome plans to ban micro-beads. However, this must cover all household, commercial and industrial products that have the potential to be washed down sewerage systems, not just personal care products. It should also cover pre-production plastic pellets known as ‘nurdles’.
Protect vulnerable deep sea ecosystems from damaging fishing practices. The deep-sea access regime is a world leading piece of legislation, designed to protect some of the most vulnerable and fragile ecosystems on the planet. The UK must carry this legislation forward and ensure that we continue to lead in sustainable and environmentally considerate fisheries management.

Funding and EEZ

To fully achieve the above priorities, it is essential to fund and manage, to collect data and to control, monitor and enforce activities within the UK’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). It is also essential to enable regulatory bodies, such as Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authorities in England, and the relevant statutory agencies to be effective.

A UK EEZ provides opportunities to address issues facing our marine environment in a new way. Potential increases in the UK’s quota for shared fish stocks within this EEZ, for example, may provide an opportunity to invest in our seas.

Similarly, the fishing and aquaculture industry will require incentives and funding to transition towards sustainability and for the aquaculture sector to grow sustainably.

Close engagement and collaborative management with our EU and other neighbours remain key priorities to manage our seas. This is particularly so when addressing trans-boundary fish stocks and issues which are a joint responsibility of all sea basin users. For example, tackling marine litter will require close collaboration. However, this should not stop the UK from being a leader when it comes to measures that reduce marine litter.