Scientists report that five years without fishing around Lundy Island, off the coast of north Devon, have brought a significant revival in marine life.

As proof of this it is claimed that lobsters are now seven times more abundant within the protected zone than outside. The eastern coast of Lundy is Britain’s only “no-take” zone, where fishing is completely prohibited. Now conservation groups say Britain needs more of them, but the government’s recent Marine Bill promises only the much vaguer “marine conservation zones”.

The Lundy Island zone was set up five years ago by Natural England in consultation with the Devon Sea Fisheries Committee, which administers fishing along the county’s coasts. Scientists, representing Natural England, claim the zone should help Devon’s lobster-potters by providing a refuge where young lobsters can grow to maturity, then migrate into areas where commercial fishing is permitted. One marine biologist says: “The main result we have seen is an increase in the number of large lobsters in the no-take zone compared to areas where fishing is on-going.”

In addition recent surveys have discovered that lobsters above the minimum landing size are between six and seven times as abundant within the zone as outside. Furthermore, recent years have also seen an increase in the number of small lobsters within the zone and adjacent to the zone.

Scientists are now tagging the lobsters they catch. Fishermen are being encouraged to report catches of tagged animals, in order to show how far they are migrating out of the no-take zones. However, fishermen are said to be generally cautious about no-take zones. One fisherman commented: “It’s difficult to say whether it’s helped us - we didn’t used to fish in there much anyway, except close to shore, but it was always good for lobsters.

When we were asked about it we were all for t. but we couldn’t afford to have the zone made any bigger because it would completely ruin our business, and I think you’d find that with a lot of fishermen around the country - it would make it totally uneconomic.”

It should be recalled that Natural England’s main reason for wanting the zone closed was not to help fishermen, but to return a tiny fraction - 0.002% - of Britain’s seas to the state they were in before the era of modern fishing. Indeed, the site wasn’t just set up to protect lobsters, it was created to protect the whole environment - including the fish, sponges and the coral.

It is also believed that a unintentional by-product of the project could be an increase in the tourist trade. A full analysis has yet to be done, but anecdotally the numbers of divers visiting Lundy has risen. However, the views of fishermen are likely to be highly influential when it comes to deciding how many of the new marine conservation zones; which are several years away from being proposed - will actually enjoy the full protection awarded to the Lundy zone.