New Marine Conservation Zones in the South West

The Government designated 41 new Marine Conservation Zones (MCZs) in Summer 2019. Devon’s coastal waters now have nine new protected areas bringing the total to fifteen in the county, and new zones were also designated in Dorset and Cornwall. 50 zones around the country were announced in 2013 and 2016 and the new zones bring the total to 91.

MCZs protect special places such as cold water corals, sandbanks and underwater canyons providing support for a support the spectacular diversity of marine life found in the UK.  Sites off Devon’s coasts include the East of Start Point MCZ, which provides an important nursery area for the fish eaten by dolphins and the Berry Head seabirds, and the Morte Platform MCZ with its mussel beds, and corals. Five more Devon estuaries now have MTZs on the rivers Axe, Otter, Dart, Avon and Erme which are very valuable havens for wildlife.

The Axe estuary, with its ecologically important saltmarsh provides a home to the endangered European eel, cockles, mudshrimps and a diverse range of both visiting and breeding seabirds.

Further information can be found from the Devon Wildlife Trust and detailed leaflets are available for each MTZ, including the three examples below.

Devon Wildlife Trust:

https://www.devonwildlifetrust.org/news/new-wave-protection-sea-announced

Axe estuary MTZ, Devon:

https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/sites/default/files/2019-05/Axe%20Estuary.pdf

Studand MTZ, Dorset:

https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/sites/default/files/2019-05/Studland%20Bay_0.pdf

Came Estuary MTZ, Cornwall: https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/sites/default/files/2019-05/Camel%20Estuary.pdf