*STOP PRESS*
100,000 VOTES REACHED
ON MARCH 22

Enthusiastic work from our supporters, a number of public aquaria, and the British Sub Aqua Club has meant that we reached out target of 100,000 votes with a week to spare! Totals in the end were 86,745 petition signatures from the aquarium sector (see below for breakdown), and 9,043 from our online voting page http://www.marinereservesnow.org.uk/. The remaining 5889 votes were collected from shows, by MCS staff at events, and from local groups. The grand total actually stands at 101,713 (as of March 25^th).

We will be handing over the petitions to Government on April 3rd in tandem with the British Sub Aqua Club divers. April 3rd is also date which the Government finally releases the draft marine bill, which doesn't have specific clauses for marine reserves - Defra still don't believe a network of HPMRs is necessary for UK seas to recover to their productive potential before industrial fishing decimated marine habitats and fish stocks over the past 150 years.

Chester Zoo	254
Birdworld Farnham	301
Aquarium of the lakes	389
Seaquarium Weston Super-Mare	429
Ilfracombe aquarium	1189
Seaquarium, Rhyl	1211
Blue Reef Aquarium, Tynemouth	1280
Sealife Adventure, Southend	1569
Blue Reef Aquarium, Newquay	1584
National Marine Aquarium, Plymouth	1747
Living Coasts, Torquay	2294
Angelsey Sea Zoo	2323
Scarborough Sealife Cente	4283
Brighton Sealife Centre	4573
The Deep, Hull	6611
Oceanarium, Bournemouth	6641
Blue Planet Aquarium, Ellesmere Port	7176
London Aquarium	12675
Bristol Zoo	14391
Birmingham Sealife Centre	15825

From now on, we will:

1. Enter the voters onto a database and contact them to petition their MPs and local councils to set up local marine reserves.
2. Use local divers and campaigners to advocate the setting up of specific sites identified from Seasearch dive reports and from an online MCS questionnaire.
3. Continue to lobby and pressure public bodies and fisheries managers to better manage current MPAs such as Special Areas of Conservation, designated under the Habitats Directive. (we have done this over the past year with a site in Falmouth which has now received a proposed statutory order to ban scallop dredging).
4. Work with our fisheries colleagues to ensure that MPAs are integrated into the sustainable fisheries programme advice.

86% of these votes have been gathered at UK public aquaria.

^{Chart showing where over 2,000 petition signatures have been collected. The contribution of UK aquara has been invaluable}

Marine Bill update
The draft marine bill will be published on April 3rd 2008 - this is when we will publicise the results of this campaign to make sure government get the message that Marine Reserves are vital for the recovery of our seas. MCS will be working with the marine aquaria to provide a national and regional press release on this day to publicise the campaign results. We are also currently working with a journalist to put together a report on marine reserves, which will hopefully be shown by the BBC on April 3rd. We recorded an interview with Kate Humble for inclusion in the report - photos of the shoot are below...

^{Kate Humble discusses the shoot with MCS Biodiversity Policy Officer, JL Solandt}

^{Many thanks to Nick Guy (Metafilms) and Madelaine Lewis who helped with the shoot}

DATE FOR DIARY - Campaign End - end of March 2008
After the draft bill is published (in early April), we will continue to push the campaign forwards, using the results to map supporters in different parliamentary constituencies. We will write and let local MPs know what representation there is for reserves from our campaign petition forms (via the postcode details). For example, Birmingham will be particularly well represented because of the multitude of voters (over 14,000) who have voted at Birmingham Sealife Centre.

DON'T DELAY VOTE NOW

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Campaign report - December 2007

The campaign has had a significant boost in late summer / early Autumn - we're well on track to reach our target of 100,000 votes by the end of the campaign (end of March 2008). Please keep the pressure on...

We reached over 80,000 votes by the middle of December 2007.

^{Petition signatures ('votes') between March 2006 and present.
Currently we are on course to reach our target of 100,000 signatures by March 2007.}

84% of these votes have been gathered at UK public aquaria.

^{Chart showing where over 1,000 petition signatures have been collected. The contribution of UK aquara has been invaluable}

The highlight of recent months were our attendance at conferences and National Aquarium Workshop. Katy Rigby of the Deep aquarium in Hull presented the campaign results at the National Aquarium Workshop in Edinburgh on November 16th. Since her presentation at the conference, a couple of other significant voters have come on board from the aquarium sector - The Blue Reef Aquarium in Newquay (contributing 1372), and the Sealife Adventure aquarium in Southend (contributing 513 votes) since November. MCS also hosted a conference on 16/17 November, and presented MPA results to the North Northumberland European Marine Site meeting on November 1st.

^{Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall @ MCS conference, Portsmouth, November 16th/17th}

^{Northumberland European Marine Site, Bamburgh, November 1st}

The fisheries minister, Jonathan Shaw gave a DVD film recording which was shown during the MCS conference in Portsmouth where he noted the important role of the Marine Reserves Now campaign. It would have been better to have the minister at the conference himself to clearly outline the government position on marine reserves, but unfortunately he was otherwise engaged!

^{MCS conference, Portsmouth Royal Naval Dockyard, November 16 and 17}

Recent reports and developments
If you ever need further conviction about the effectiveness of marine reserves, then please visit the following NEW website on the Science of Marine Reserves. Alternatively, download the talks at the Natural England Marine Protected Areas conference held in Scarborough on October 4th. This includes a presentation by MCS Biodiversity Policy Officer, Dr JL Solandt.

MCS presented information to the BBC regarding the Defra consultation on 7 future proposed offshore Marine Protected Areas on December 20th. MCS hopes that these areas are effectively managed, but as they cover less than 2% of our offshore waters are nowhere near expansive enough to provide the necessary level of protection needed.

Marine Bill update
MCS met with Defra officials on December 4th to discuss the marine bill and marine nature reserves. We are still unconvinced that the bill will do enough to ensure the clear protection of our seas, and that it won't give the necessary powers to conservation experts to manage the seas. Unfortunately, it appears that there is still a problem with the government of today NOT recognising or ignoring the faults of before with their reluctance to give over-riding importance to marine conservation.

DATE FOR DIARY - Campaign End - end of March 2008
The draft marine bill will be published in the Spring of 2008, when MCS will present the campaign results to Defra. It is our intention to publish a report on Marine Protected Areas and a Marine Reserve network. We will continue to push the campaign forwards, and map our results in order to provide regional advice, both for the desired designation of reserves, and to show local politicians what representation there is for reserves from our campaign petition forms (via the postcode details).

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Campaign report - October 2007

The campaign has had a significant boost in late summer / early Autumn - we're well on track to reach our target of 100,000 votes by the end of the campaign (end of March 2008). Please keep the pressure on...

We have reached over 61,000 votes by the end of October 2007.

The Blue Reef Aquarium in Tynemouth hosted MP for Tynemouth Alan Campbell who can be seen with aquarist Zahra D'Aronville holding the poster.

Zahra also got some divers willing to hold the poster...

An astonishing number of votes this month came from Bristol Zoo -
8096 signatures were sent in to our offices. Well done to them:

Overall number of votes collected in September and October:

Bristol Zoo	8096
Living Coasts (Torquay)	601
Rhyll Seaquarium	373
National Marine Aquarium, Plymouth	707
Blue Reef, Tynemouth	422
Blue Planet, Ellesmere Port	211
Ilfracombe aquarium, Devon	639
Angelesy Sea Zoo	285
Birmingham Sealife Centre	1908
Brighton Sealife Centre	765
The Deep, Hull	602
Aquarium of the Lakes, Cumbria	389
Other (events, MCS roadshow, etc)	1663

MCS work

MCS Biodiversity Policy Officer, JL Solandt dived the site of the Fal and Helford where there is extraordinary marine biodiversity iincluding the nationally rare maerl habitat, and even fanshells. MCS also sent a letter to Defra strongly recommending that they close the scallop dredge fishery, as this is likely to cause further damage to the maerl habitat in the bay. We await their response.

^{Scallop dredgers working in Fal Bay - over a Marine Protected Area}

_{^{The southwest scallop fishing industry is profitable, but unfortunately, very damaging to vulnerable habitats.}}

^{The fanshell in the protected area is fortunately 'protected' by being in very sheltered waters and surrounded by moorings. Otherwise, these creatures are extemely rare.}

Future work / events

The Queens Speech is due to be delivered on November 6th. MCS hopes that the Queen will mention a draft marine bill being published in the Spring. It is our intention to finish this campaign and deliver the signatures to 10 Downing Street on that day with a report on the location for marine reserves.

The Nation Aquarium Workshop takes place in Edinburgh this month (Deep Sea World in Perth). Katy Rigby will present the results thus far of the campaign to delegates there. Meanwhile, MCS Biodiversity Policy Officer will attend the MCS seafood conference and Oceans 2007 conference in Portsmouth to present the campaign results and progress on MPA work by MCS in the past year. Both presentations are on Saturday November 17th.

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Campaign report - August 2007

The MCS Marine Reserves Now campaign continues to gain momentum since the launch of our online voting website in August 2006. Click here to vote and view the award-winning animation Marine Reserves Now.

We reached over 48,000 votes registered by the public as of the end of August 2007.

Marine Reserves in Wales:

The Marine Conservation Society believes that Marine reserves are integral to all our seas, however the implementation of a network of reserves is complicated by the fact that inshore nature conservation policy and action is divided between England, Wales and Scotland.

MCS attended the Royal Welsh Show in July 2007, and our Welsh Ocean Wildlife Officer, Gill Bell managed to successfully gain the signatures on our petition of Mark Isherwood (Welsh Assembly Government Conservative for North Wales); Darren Millar;(Welsh Conservative AM for Clwyd); Lembit Opek (Welsh Lib Dem leader) and most importantly, Jane Davidson (Wales Minister for the Environment).

^{MCS Welsh Ocean Wildlife Officer Gill Bell with Jane Davidson}

MCS attends the Newlyn fish festival with the 'Cool Seas Roadshow'

MCS staff members attended the annual Newlyn fish festival on August bank holiday where 187 signatures were collected in a single day. An impression of the strength of the campaign is that members of the public are happy to sign when given the small amount of information that we have so little protection in our waters.

^{MCS and the Cool Seas Roadshow at the Newlyn Fish Festival}

MCS presents marine reserves and attends meeting with fisheries managers

MCS biodiversity policy officer, Jean-Luc Solandt gave a presentation to The Bridport Town Council Environment Group alongside Tom Appleby, a research fellow from the University of Bristol working on environmental impacts of fishing. Bridport is one of the key ports that harbours scallop dredgers which operate in Lyme Bay. The talk was preceeded by a showing of 'caught in time' - the story of the development of a NTZ in Lamlash Bay, Scotland by the Community of Aran Seabed Trust.

^{MCS Biodiversity Policy Officer (JL Solandt) and lawyer Tom Appleby present evidence for Marine Reserves to Bridport Town Council Environment Group}

A meeting was held on September 11th to discuss scallop dredging inside a current protected area (the Fal and Helford Special Area of Conservation). MCS is working with local fishermen, Natural England, the Sea Fisheries Committee and Defra to ensure that management of scallop dredging in the area is controlled to such an extent that the natural wildlife and habitats of the bay are preserved and recover to their full ecological potential.

^{Scallop dredge vessels operating in the Fal and Helford Special Area of Conservation}

Marine Protected Area conferences - Spain and Scarborough

A major EU-wide conference was held in late September to discuss the usefulness of MPAs as a tool for ecosystem conservation and fisheries management. MCS presented the results of three case studies detailing the lessons learned from setting up small-scale MPAs in the UK and Isle of Man. You can download our poster here. The conference gave up to date information from ecological and social scientists and MPA managers to assess the results of European Marine Protected Areas, investigate stakeholder buy-in, and draw on best practice from abroad. This large conference was attended by 440 delegates with over 130 talks and 180 posters.

<sup>The conference was organised by EMPAfish and PROTECT


Co-authors on the poster 'Lessons learned from setting up small MPAs in the UK and Isle of Man'. Download poster here.


The magnificent city of Murcia in Southeast Spain.</sup>

The second conference (October 2-4) was hosted by Natural England and held in Scarborough, where MCS was invited to provide a presentation on the successes of Marine Protected Areas for biodiversity. It was attended by 190 delegates from accross the British Isles and Ireland. You can download the talk here.

<sup>The conference in Scarborough was organised by Natural England.
MCS were invited to talk about the biodiversity benefits of MPAs. Download talk here.


Ian Barrett - Defra head of marine biodiversity policy presents the Defra position on MPAs.


Calum Duncan (MCS Scottish Conservation Manager), Don McNeish and Howard Wood of C.O.A.S.T.</sup>

Votes for Marine Reserves

Congratulations to the aquarium sector, and all our volunteers who have pulled out all the stops in August to collect an outstanding 11,000 votes.

Geoff Holt, Trudie and many others have to be congratulated for thus far entering the detailed locations of 15,000 postcodes from the petition forms so that we can map the votes, and gain an impression of where people live. As you can see, we are seeing a concerted call for marine reserves from many members of the general public in inland areas. Interesting, as much of UK management and policy from governmental institutions has traditionally been dictated from the local coastal level. This petition clearly indicates that a wider selection of society needs to have a say on marine conservation issues.

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Campaign report - July 2007

The MCS Marine Reserves Now campaign continues to gain momentum since the launch of our online voting website in August 2006. Click here to vote and view the award-winning animation Marine Reserves Now.

We have reached over 35,000 votes registered by the public as of the end of July 2007.

^{Public votes for Marine Reserves Now up to end of July 2007 (left). We are still aiming for 100,000 by the end of March 2008. Several celebrities and MPs are calling for Marine Reserves Now, including John Prescott - a keen diver, MP for Hull, at the Deep in June (right).}

More local MPs support the campaign

Support from local aquaria is fundamental to getting the campaign message accross. We have had support from five MPs (so far) holding the poster including Tobias Elwood, Conservative MP for Bournemouth East, here seen holding the poster with Oliver Butling of Bournemouth Oceanarium. Please invite your local MP into your aquarium to discuss the campaign.

General public go to extraordinary lengths

From the top of Ben Nevis to a breezy Brighton Beach, supporters of the campaign go to extreme lengths to support the campaign...

^{Ben Nevis 'Coastal Challengers' get the message across from UK's highest peak}