The Wildlife Trusts: New report highlights need to protect important places for dolphins, whales and basking sharks. Many people are surprised to discover that in the waters surrounding our shores you could encounter 29 different species of whale, dolphin and porpoise and the second largest shark in the world – the basking shark. A new report identifies 17 important ‘megafauna hotspots’ around our shores for the first time and highlights the need to protect them.
Save Our Ocean Giants – the protected areas we need for dolphins, whales and basking sharks explains why The Wildlife Trusts want to see these newly identified hotspots (special areas on which whales, dolphins and basking sharks most depend) protected by law. This would secure the missing link in marine protection for English and Welsh waters. The UK Government is working towards achieving an ‘ecologically coherent network of Marine Protected Areas’, however, there’s a glaring omission in this process: the absence of protection for the nutrient-rich and highly productive places on which marine megafauna most depend. Click Here to read the report
Sharks gained protected status and marine debris recognised as a major threat CMS Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals
http://www.sharktrust.org/en/news/article/835/historic-advances-in-international-shark-and-ray-conservation.html