Defra has announced the designation of the third tranche of Marine Conservation Zones (MCZs). The latest designations of 41 new MCZs brings the overall total of MCZs in English waters to 91. In addition, new features have been added to 12 existing MCZs. The Government has announced that this essentially completes the UK ‘Blue Belt’ and the UK’s contribution to an ecologically coherent network in the North East Atlantic in terms of the representation of species and habitats. When added to other types of marine protected areas there are now 175 protected sites covering 40% of English seas.
For full details of all the MCZs, including maps, fact sheets, etc. follow this link.
In the Irish Sea there are 6 new sites, bringing the Irish Sea total to 10 MCZs, plus 1 additional feature added to an existing MCZ. The new designations are:
- Queenie Corner MCZ – an offshore site in the western part of the Irish Sea, covering an area of 146 km². Features protected: subtidal mud and sea-pen and burrowing megafauna communities; both features need to recover to favourable condition.
- Ribble Estuary MCZ – an inshore site on the north-west coast of England, near Preston, covering an area of approximately 15 km². Feature protected: smelt (Osmerus eperlanus); needs to recover to favourable condition.
- Solway Firth MCZ – an inshore site on the Cumbria side of the Solway Firth in the far north-eastern Irish Sea. The MCZ covers an area of approximately 45 km². Feature protected: smelt (Osmerus eperlanus); needs to recover to favourable condition.
- South Rigg MCZ – an offshore site in
the west of the Irish Sea region, approximately 23 km west of the Isle of Man
and covering an area of 143 km². Features protected/needs are:
- Moderate energy circalittoral rock – maintain in favourable condition
- Subtidal mixed sediments – recover to favourable condition
- Sea-pen & burrowing megafauna communities – recover to favourable condition
- Subtidal coarse sediment – recover to favourable condition
- Subtidal mud – recover to favourable condition
- Subtidal sand – recover to favourable condition
- West of Copeland MCZ – an offshore site
in the eastern part of the Irish Sea region covering an area of 158 km². Features
protected/needs are:
- Subtidal sand – maintain in favourable condition
- Subtidal coarse sediment – recover to favourable condition
- Subtidal mixed sediments – recover to favourable condition
- Wyre-Lune MCZ – an inshore site in the southern part of Morecambe Bay, Lancashire, in the Irish Sea, covering an area of approximately 92 km². Feature protected: smelt (Osmerus eperlanus); needs to recover to favourable condition.
- Cumbria Coast MCZ This site became a Marine Conservation Zone (MCZ) in November 2013 but had an additional feature, razorbill (Alca torda), added in May 2019, along with a small extension to the site boundary for this new feature only. For all other features the original site boundary is still as it was when first designated. Razorbill needs to recover to favourable condition. For all other features the requirement is to maintain in favourable condition. These features are: high energy intertidal rock, honeycomb worm (Sabellaria alveolata) reefs, intertidal biogenic reefs, intertidal sand and muddy sand, intertidal underboulder communities, moderate energy infralittoral rock, peat and clay exposures.
The 4 previously designated MCZs in the Irish Sea are:
Allonby Bay
Cumbria Coast
Fylde
West of Walney
