Fishing ban will help Lundy Isle sealife

The sealife around Lundy Island is to get more protection

An area around Lundy Island is to become out of bounds to fishermen and anglers, as part of an attempt to protect sealife in the National Marine Nature Reserve.

Lundy, which lies off the North Devon coast, is famous for its population of seals and puffins. But it is equally important for species of fish and flora.

But research - together with dwindling fish catches - suggests that some species are becoming more and more rare.

That has prompted all the relevant authorites - Devon Sea Fisheries; English Nature; the Landmark Trust, which administers Lundy; and the National Trust, which owns it - to agree on the need for a pioneering No Take Zone.

A bylaw is now being drawn up, which will ban all forms of fishing for a two-mile area on the sheltered, eastern side of Lundy.

This is where the rare species can be found, protected by the
island - unlike the exposed western side, which is open to the
Atlantic elements.

English Nature manages the conservation aspect of the reserve.
Its wildlife warden for Lundy, Liza Cole, said the No Take Zone
was supported by fishermen and anglers..

Lundy has a vibrant underwater world

She added: "It's apparent that shellfish stocks - things like lobsters
for example - have reduced, and it's not in anyone's interest
for that to happen, including the fishermen.

"One of the things we are doing is taking pregnant lobsters to the
hatchery at Padstow, and then afterwards, returning them to Lundy.
So it helps the fishery side of things to protect the area.

Rare seafan off Lundy Island

"But we also need to protect the rare species we have on the eastern side of the island as well, such as the seafan. It's important for the biodiversity that we do not start losing these rare species."

Similar No Take Zones - especially those in New Zealand - have proved spectacularly successful. The Lundy ban would be for the forseeable future - and could be made permanent.

BBC NEWS July 24 2002