The State of the South-West Seas 2021 Report has been released. The report has been prepared by a group of experts working on the South-West Marine Ecosystems partnership. This SWME partnership brings the marine and coastal community together annually to consider the changes that are taking place in our local seas; this is the eighth report in this series. It includes detailed chapters on oceanography, plankton, the seashore and seabed, fish and turtles, coastal birds, seals, whales, dolphins and porpoises.

The report features management chapters including fisheries, marine protected areas, water pollution and plastics pollution. Webinars on these topics for 2021 can be viewed on this YouTube channel.

The report reflects the work of both hundreds volunteer citizen scientists and professionals working in the south-west. This summary below highlights points which are covered in the chapters of the report which was published in July 2022.

Topics include:

• Storms The patterns of storms in 2021 and the winter of 2022 was normal and, in many ways, unremarkable.

• Plankton There were no major or unusual plankton blooms in 2021. However, there was a continuation of a widespread, long-term, mainly summer decline in key elements of the food web (i.e. larger phytoplankton and copepods) during the summer months.

• Shore and seabed marine life showed some minor changes such as a likely increase in extent of seagrass, a small (one species) increase in the number of non-native species.

• Fish Porbeagle and thresher shark sightings maintained their recent elevated levels, but the very reduced number of sightings of the basking shark continued the pattern of recent years.

• Turtles The number of turtle reports in the south-west was very low in 2021, and unusually more ‘hardshell’ turtles were reported than leatherback turtles.

• Marine and coastal birds  Rat eradication is working on south-west islands notably on St Agnes and Gugh (Isles of Scilly) and Lundy, with the recovery of burrow (puffins and shearwaters) and cliff nesters continuing to increase in abundance and expand into unoccupied areas.

• Seals Seals in the south-west continued to be monitored closely. This work shows that the population of grey seals in south-west England are part of a wider population in the Celtic Sea and English Channel, including the coasts of France and Ireland. 

• Whales, Dolphins & Porpoises The four main species of large baleen whale (humpback, fin, sei and minke) continued to be recorded in south-west waters in 2021.

• Fisheries The south-west is especially important for fisheries at many levels. Major changes to the way we manage our fisheries post-Brexit are under development and will be implemented over the next few years.

• Marine Protected Areas In the SWME area, we currently have 58 Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) across the Devon, Cornwall and Isles of Scilly marine area (coastline to 12nm), 34% of the marine area is covered by an MPA designation. 

• Water Quality Progress towards improving water quality in our catchments and around our coasts has stalled, and in many instances, it has gone into reverse.

• Plastic pollution Total weight of marine littler removed was over six times that of 2018 and over three times that of 2019. Care is needed in interpreting amounts collected as there is a lot of variability in the data due to effort, many more charities recording effort and amounts, and increased knowledge of where the plastic washes up

For information on SWME contact Bob Earll bob@bobearll.co.uk or Keith Hiscock khis@mba.ac.uk or Ruth Williams ruth.williams@cornwallwildlifetrust.org.uk

The State of the South-West Seas 2021 Report can be found here.