Marine Protected Areas could be considered for Guernsey’s waters as part of wider plans to protect local marine life from rising numbers of invasive species.
Speaking in the States this morning, Deputy Lindsey de Sausmarez explained how the Committee for the Environment and Infrastructure is working on both a Marine Spatial Plan and a Marine Biosecurity Plan.
The MSP will focus on enabling work to “support not just offshore renewable aspirations but also other facets of the blue economy such as fishing, tourism, leisure and the protection of the marine environment” while the MBP “aims to protect our blue economy from the threats of introducing pests, diseases, and invasive non-native species”.
Deputy de Sausmarez said E&I is currently “building the evidence base that will underpin the MSP” while work on the MBP is more advanced and it will “be launched in the coming months”.
Deputy John Gollop asked the E&I President how the blue economy will benefit from these work streams and if the Marine Spatial Plan will “look at somehow rebalancing our fish habitat as best we can to prevent invasive species?”.
Deputy de Sausmarez said the MSP is effectively a marine version of the Island Development Plan.
It will include things like marine protected areas that are important breeding grounds for particular species. Creating a marine protected area would mean measures can be introduced to make sure it can “remain sustainable or sensitive” and that “endangered species can be adequately protected”.
She said “they’re often very much welcomed by the fishing community” but she also added that the upcoming Marine Biosecurity Plan will also help allay growing concerns around fish and shellfish stocks as it will “deal specifically with how we can mitigate risks around pests, invasive, non native species, disease that affects our marine wildlife.
“That is something that’s very close to fruition that is going to be published in the next few weeks.”
Octopus have been decimating crab and lobster catches in some areas, with Guernsey based fishermen among those suffering.
It is not a local phenomenon though with the recent increase in octopus population being observed throughout the English Channel, on both the English and French coasts.
Some marine experts have said that the increase may be linked to climate change and other changes to the ecosystem.
Deputy de Sausmarez has previously been asked how Guernsey can manage the sudden influx of the cephalopod and she explained then that “the presence of octopus in our waters is not a new phenomenon, as they have been previously observed in large numbers, prior to 1963 and anecdotally, before that time”.
She has also explained previously that octopus “are not an invasive, non-native species, and are therefore not subject to any specific management, which would be difficult to implement”.