Marine and Coastal Access Bill [Lords]

This is an important Bill. It has been long in the gestation, but is welcome and, I believe, addresses many issues that are of enormous potential benefit to the communities on our coasts and to the environment. It will have major consequences for my constituency. North Essex is a largely coastal constituency which includes the southern shore of the Stour estuary, the southern shore of the Tendring Hundred, the Colne estuary and all the associated tidal creeks and Mersea island, off the Essex coast at the mouth of the Blackwater estuary, which will be familiar to the Secretary of State. Perhaps I should, like the Secretary of State, declare a very minor interest. My wife owns a little beach house on the Essex coast, although I shall not be dealing with the matters of coastal access that might make that interest relevant. The Essex coast still supports a fishing industry, and in my constituency oysters remain extremely important to the local economy and to our cultural heritage. My objective is the survival of the non-sector fishing industry—commercial vessels which, although measuring less than 10 metres, require the allocation of fishing quota under the European Union common fisheries policy—and the survival of the native oyster industry. In fact, the two industries are mutually dependent. Oyster fishermen have traditionally supplemented their oyster catch by catching other fish outside the oyster season. Owing to the restriction on 10-metre vessels, that now requires an additional licence, which in turn requires a minimum amount of fish to be caught regardless of other activities that may be undertaken. The practice encourages overfishing—if the quota is not used up, it is lost—and imposes unnecessary penalties on fishermen as a result. The inshore fishery around Essex requires nurturing and protection. In particular, the hatching grounds of the native Colchester oyster in the outer Blackwater estuary need more specific protection than they have enjoyed historically. Historically, the oyster beds where the young oysters are brought on are protected by ancient several orders and specific leases from the Crown Estate to the oyster fishermen. However, they dredge their young oysters from well outside that area, an area that is vulnerable to indiscriminate trawling and fishing and requires protection. Perhaps there is a case for marine conservation zones to provide such protection. I am disappointed that the Minister in another place seemed to be saying that the marine conservation zones should not be used for fishery management and protection. If they are not used for those purposes, one of the main points of the Bill will be missed. The North Essex test of the Bill is whether the sustainability of the inshore fisheries is protected and improved; only then will Essex fishermen and their successors enjoy a sustainable industry. The Bill must also provide for recreational fishing, which I believe is one of the most unsung and under-exploited generators of employment and tourism income in the Essex area. The potential for sea bass fishing off the Essex coast, for example, is enormous and it could provide huge benefit to the area. However, I fear that the licensing regime being introduced for recreational fishermen is acting as a deterrent. Furthermore, so many of the bass are caught by netsmen. That reduces the size of the fish, and it is their size that is of particular attraction to sport fishermen. A more enlightened approach would recognise that the commercial fishermen are not the only interests to be addressed; the recreational fishermen represent a legitimate interest, and one that is perhaps more consonant with the conservation of stock. Beyond the North Essex test, there is a wider, national—or even international—test for the Bill. It is whether it will challenge the failure of the common fisheries policy. The Bill applies only up to the 6 mile limit; it does not address the whole of the cod crisis in the North sea, for example. However, I hope that it will be a step towards making politicians more accountable for how they treat the public seas. Conservation should be the highest priority for the Government and the fishing industry; indeed, the interests of conservation and the fishing industry should go hand in hand to ensure the future of our marine habitat and the livelihoods of those who rely on it. I urge people to watch "The End of the Line", the compelling but sobering film by my constituent Charles Clover, who wrote a book of the same title. It sets out how mankind is simply fishing our seas, species by species, to complete extinction. As my hon. Friend the Member for Arundel and South Downs (Nick Herbert) said earlier, we have become used to talking about "peak oil" in energy policy, but we have already passed "peak fish". The film describes how that level was reached some 15 years ago, although we never realised it. The Chinese bureaucrats were lying about how much fish the Chinese had caught year after year. In fact, the total global fish catch is now in structural decline because fish stocks have been so over-exploited. More and more effective means of catching fish ensure that every year we catch a higher and higher proportion of the fish that are left. As my hon. Friend pointed out, scientists estimate that, on current trends, there will be virtually no fish left in the sea by 2048. That will have many consequences for the marine environment and global warming. Believe it or not, the defecation of fish puts alkaline into the sea, increasing its carbon absorption qualities. If we remove the fish, the sea will cease to absorb so much carbon dioxide. The issue is of massive consequence; a third of the world's population is fed on fish. Were the fish stocks of the world to collapse, there would be an immediate security and international humanitarian crisis. "The End of the Line" has been described as the marine conservationists' equivalent of Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth". It has been shown all over the country, including at Harwich's Electric Palace cinema in my constituency. It has also been shown all over London and the rest of the country. Unless we address the agenda raised by that remarkable film, we will rue the day. It is a call to arms to the citizens of the world to hold the politicians accountable for the destruction of life in our seas—life on which our own well-being ultimately depends. I close with some remarks about the judgment in the European Court of Justice that I raised with the Secretary of State during his opening remarks. The WWF launched a court action, appealing that the cod quotas had been set not according to scientific advice but according to political pressures in the North sea. The Court ruled that even though the WWF is represented on the North sea regional advisory committee, it had no locus standi to represent what the Court called a "sufficient interest" in the decision that it sought to challenge. That means that environmental organisations that should be able to act in the name of the citizen have no means of challenging the legality of the EU's decisions about fish. No other Government in the world are so utterly immune to legal challenge in that way. That flies in the face of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe's Aarhus convention, which was intended to set down minimum standards on access to environmental information, public participation in decision making and access to justice in environmental issues. That raises a fundamental question that goes to the heart of the purpose of the Bill. Who owns the fish? Who owns the marine environment that we are seeking to protect? Who is liable for its degradation? Who is accountable for neglecting to stop its destruction and decline? As a boy, I grew up regularly being taken to the west coast of Scotland, to sail in that remarkable part of the world. Even during my lifetime, a sense has grown that the bird life and sea life and the fecundity of the sea there are a shadow of their former selves. As I work around the Essex coast in my constituency, there is a sense of doom and decline about the bird life, and the vibrancy of the marine ecology and the vulnerability of those who live off it. Unless the Bill strengthens the environmental imperative and has at its heart a scientific assessment of the vulnerability of the marine ecology, it will fail in its primary objective.