Lundy No-Take zone a success.

Lundy No-Take zone a success.

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.