The MMO Habitat Protection Strategy, for Studland Bay MCZ includes a Voluntary No Anchoring Zone (VNAZ), proposals for mooring licensing plans, and an annual monitoring process, to be introduced over six months between December 2021 and June 2022. In its response the RYA has stated that the approach gives little time to determine impacts on or from recreational boating. They have recommended a longer phased introduction over two years (2022 – 2023) to enable monitoring of outcomes to ensure the protection of both the seagrass habitat and boating interests, alongside better community engagement. Click here

A key recommendation from the RYA is to co-ordinate the introduction of the VNAZ with the provision of moorings to provide boaters with a workable alternative to anchoring. As the MMO’s plans currently stand, the RYA believe there is a risk that users will have no means of mooring safely in the area until a licence for moorings is granted. The MMO is not able to provide additional moorings and no third party has yet submitted a marine licence to do so.

The Strategy put forward from the MMO also does not include plans to mark the site so that boat users do not mistakenly anchor there. Instead, the MMO is relying on identifying the area on charts. The RYA’s view is that it may take some time for this information to become available, with recreational sailors finding it difficult to identify the site in the meantime. The RYA has proposed the installation of information signs on marker buoys to indicate the perimeter and reason for the restrictions to recreational boaters. A similar initiative is already successfully in place at Jennycliff Bay in Plymouth Sound.

You can read the MMO’s Studland Bay MCZ Habitat Protection Strategy in full on the GOV.UK website. The full RYA response to the Studland Bay MCZ Habitat Protection Strategy is available on the RYA website

For further information on Advanced Mooring Systems that aim to reduce seabed damage from anchoring and mooring of recreational boats Click here