A Positive Start
About eight years ago I spotted a job advert in the guardian supplement, looking for a Publications Officer for the Devon Wildlife Trust. I was, at the time, a newly graduated Biology student, working as a Press Officer in North London, and not really liking it at all. I jumped at the opportunity and, with my CV being well received, was sent a pre-interview exercise to gauge my abilities.
I got a scientific paper by the Trust’s Marine Biologist and it was my task to transform it into people-friendly language. The ground-breaking data detailed trawling damage to the rocky reefs of Lyme Bay and its author was one Chris Davis, I remember trying to picture the boffin who wrote such interesting stuff.
Little did I know that I would successfully land the job with DWT and, moreover, get to know Chris very well indeed. So the progress of the Lyme Bay Project has been something I have kept a close eye on over the last few years. Last week a major step was taken by the Government when they confirmed that an area of seabed lying off our coastline between Beer Head and West bay in Dorset, would be closed to scallop dredging, beam trawling and otter trawling.
It is scallop dredging which has been shown to cause the most damage to the fragile corals and sponges of our cold water reefs, and so it is this practice which has been halted. Other forms of fishing, such as potting, hand lining and diving, which do not have such impact, are still allowed within the 60 square nautical miles and if the marine life benefits from the removal of heavy fishing gear, these low impact fishing techniques could benefit.
As a conservationist I am very proud that this has happened off our coastline. As I’ve stated in previous articles, our levels of maritime conservation lag woefully behind that of the terrestrial, and this is a positive step in the right direction. Of course not everyone sees it this way.
Fishermen and their lobby groups have been very vocal to undermine the exclusion, stating that this will be an unbearable burden coming, as it does, at exactly the same time as massive increases in fuel costs. I can empathise with their frustrations, but it doesn’t make scallop dredging any less impacting. So what are we to do?
I enjoy fresh Lyme Bay scallops immensely, and would be sorry to see a reduction of these beauties leading to alternatives being brought from overseas. Especially from further a-field, where they may have even worse fishing practices! I hope that the lobby groups and fishing associations, which have worked so hard in recent years trying to resist the Lyme Bay ban, will now work with their members to help them diversify their businesses.
As Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall is quick to point out in his book “Fish”, or on his current TV series, Lyme Bay has some of the best fish in the world, so the loss of a fishing fleet to sustainably harvest this bounty would indeed be a great shame. But the key lies in the little word sustainable.
As with any food that economically reflects its scarcity, intricacy or expertise in collection, we should be clamouring to pay a little more to buy our local scallops, hand caught and fresh off the quay. For a good analogy, look towards our friends in Tuscany, an area we in the South West could do well to emulate.
Truffles have been long treasured in the Tuscan hills, with skilled old men and their truffle hunting hounds or pigs foraging in secret woodlands, the location of which is passed down through generations. A few hundred grams of white gold might be gleaned from these areas each year, and so gastronomes know they have to part with considerable cash to enjoy the fungal feast.
Yes, it would be quicker and easier to bulldoze the entire ancient woodland and collect all the truffles there. But that would make for a very small harvest this time next year…