14 February, 2006

ENVIRONMENTAL groups yesterday (Monday) hit out at the Westminster government for leaving important parts of the coast unprotected from hazardous shipping.

Yesterday the Department of Transport published a list of Marine Environment High Risk Areas (MEHRAs), 12 years after such a move was recommended by the Donaldson Report into the 1993 Braer disaster, off Shetland, when 85,000 tonnes of oil spilled into the sea killing 5,000 seabirds.

The list of 32 areas, including Muckle Flugga, off Unst, and Fedaland, in North Roe, names parts of the UK coastline which are regarded as particularly vulnerable to pollution from merchant shipping.

UK transport minister Alistair Darling said: "The government has looked very carefully at every part of the UK coastline and assessed the potential impact of commercial shipping on the local environment. As a result, we have identified 32 locations around the UK that should be given MEHRA protection.

"MEHRAs will be an essential aid to passage planning since their primary purpose is to inform ships' masters of areas where they need to exercise even more caution than usual. This is just part of the information available to mariners to enable them to navigate UK waters safely."

However wildlife groups have expressed dismay that The Minches - between the Scottish mainland and Western Isles - and the Scilly isles off south-west England have been excluded from the list.

Kara Brydson, marine and coastal policy officer for RSPB Scotland, said: "We welcome the news that some areas in Scotland have been included as Marine Environment High Risk Areas but to have taken so long to produce something so incomplete mocks the concept of protection Lord Donaldson valued so highly.

"The Minches and the Scilly Isles both teem with wildlife and the Minches are hugely important to coastal fishermen and fish farming operations.

"Both areas were given as examples of potential MEHRA sites by Lord Donaldson and have been repeatedly recommended for protection by conservation bodies. An oil spill in either area would devastate the habitats of seabirds, whales and dolphins and be a disaster for local economies."

British and European seas have suffered several shipping disasters since the Donaldson report was published. The Sea Empress (1996), ten years ago this month, the Erika (1999) and the Prestige (2002) all caused oil spills killing wildlife, damaging coastal habitats and areas important to local communities.

In 2003 the Cypriot registered vessel Jambo - laden with 3,300 tons of zinc and 83 tons of marine diesel oil - sank off the north west coast of Scotland near the Summer Isles.

Helen McLachlan, marine policy officer at WWF Scotland, said: "Protection in the right place is invaluable for the marine environment, its species and the industries dependent on it for their livelihoods."

Calum Duncan, Scottish officer for the Marine Conservation Society, said: "Not only is this list incomplete but details of the management measures proposed to protect the MEHRAs from future oil spills are inadequate.

"If protection and management measures are inadequate, then the listing of MEHRAs will have been a complete waste of time. In the unwelcome event of an oil or chemical spill, even if sites bordering the Minches were given MEHRA designation under the present criteria, as we believe some should, remote coastal communities, marine biodiversity and fish and shellfish nurseries would therefore still bear the brunt of such inadequacy."

Shipping and navigation mitigation measures for the management of MEHRAs could include: traffic separation schemes; set shipping routes; deep water routes; areas to be avoided; mandatory pilotage; greater use of tugs and salvage tugs at key coastal points; more oil pollution response equipment available; marking MEHRAs on navigational charts; educating mariners about the marine environment.

The identification of MEHRAs raises awareness amongst mariners of the sensitivity of coastal areas.

MEHRAs will cover only a limited area of the UK's coastal waters, and their powers will be limited to regulating shipping. Allied with their MEHRAs lobbying, conservation groups have pushed hard for a Marine Bill to regulate use of all British waters not just areas covered by MEHRAs.

A bill was promised in the government's election manifesto last year and should provide more comprehensive protection for marine wildlife, including new marine protected areas. Identification and designation of a network of such areas including nationally important sites will be a key success criterion for this Bill.