11:19am Friday 20th June 2008
WILDLIFE experts today welcomed a ban on damaging types of fishing in part of Lyme Bay.
Fisheries Minister Jonathan Shaw travelled to Dorset to announce that about 60 square nautical miles of the bay from West Bay to Beer Head will be permanently closed to fishing, including scallop fishing, which drags nets along the bottom of the sea.
The ban, which will protect the home of spectacular reefs, pink sea fans, sunset cup corals and several rare species of sponges, comes into force from early July.
Dorset Wildlife Trust marine officer Peter Tinsley welcomed the announcement and said: "We are very pleased.
"Reefs in Lyme Bay were definitely under threat from physical damage and now that will effectively be stopped.
"Heavy metal dredgers being dragged along the seabed by powerful fishing boats were strong enough to overturn large boulders and damage the soft rocks which make up the reef."
He added that the area covered by the ban had been recognised as one of the top wildlife sites in England by Natural England which prized it for a valuable range of life including pink sea fans, sponges and soft and hard corals. Mr Tinsley said: "The ban will target a key area of Lyme Bay where most of the reef habitat is concentrated.
"It is a lifeline for wildlife and it will also help ensure that the area remains of value."
But scallop and trawlermen strongly disagreed with the ban and South West Inshore Fishermen's Association chairman Nick Prust said: "I am appalled.
"A scientific solution offered by us has been ignored. There is no point trying to save all 60 square miles covered by the ban in Lyme Bay when in some parts there is nothing left there to save."
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