The UK government has announced the opening of a consultation on five potential Highly Protected Marine Areas (HPMAs) in England. As we covered on 21 June 2022, the Guardian leaked the five sites in advance of Defra’s announcement.

Defra said in its press release: ‘HPMAs will have the highest levels of protection in our seas. They will conserve all species and habitats within the HPMA boundary, enabling nature to fully recover. This is the latest step in the Government’s progress towards our ambitious ocean commitments and builds on the existing Marine Protected Area (MPA) network extending across 40% of English seas.

To enable the ecosystem to recover to as natural a state as possible, activities such as fishing, dredging, construction and anchoring are set to be prohibited in HPMA sites.

Environment Minister Rebecca Pow said:

Highly protected marine areas will offer the highest levels of protection in our seas. They will help a wide range of valuable habitats and species to fully recover, boosting the resilience of our ecosystem and allowing the marine environment to thrive. As demands on our oceans increase, it is more important than ever that we take decisive action to safeguard nature whilst ensuring we can continue to meet the sustainable needs of those who rely on our seas.

Defra is consulting on five candidate pilot HPMAs which are geographically spread around English waters and cover inshore and offshore habitats. These are:

Two inshore sites: Allonby Bay (Irish Sea) and Lindisfarne (Northern North Sea).

Three offshore sites: North East of Farnes Deep (Northern North Sea), Inner Silver Pit South (Southern North Sea) and Dolphin Head (Eastern Channel).

The five candidate pilot sites are a mixture of natural and degraded sites and include a wide range of biodiversity such as sheltered intertidal mudflats, subtidal kelp forests, and biogenic and rocky reef. They are also home to valuable marine species, commercially important fish stocks, and include blue carbon habitats which play an important role in capturing and storing carbon. The candidate sites were selected using ecological analysis and advice from Natural England and the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC).

The consultation will run for 12 weeks until 28 September 2022. The evidence gathered will inform which candidate sites are taken forward as pilot HPMAs. The first HPMAs will be designated in 2023.’

The Defra news story can be read in full here. The policy paper from Defra outlining the rationale for Highly Protected Marine Areas and an overview of the candidate site selection process can be found here.

The full consultation documents on the five proposed HPMAs in England can be read here.

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