Who needs the sea
No one in the South East lives more than 70 miles from the coast. We rely on the sea for a huge range of products, including seafood, pet food, oil, sand, and substances used in ice cream, washing powder and toothpaste! South East seas provide for us in many ways, but they also provide a home to animals such as the sea mouse and the pipefish. Human demands on the sea are threatening sea life through pollution, over-fishing, coastal development and extraction of sand and gravel.
We are all buffeted by sea breezes, drenched by sea-born rain and grown on produce from the sea. We're a nation of coast-dwellers. Yet on a grey day in Didcot or Dorking, it's easy to feel a million miles from the sea, and to forget our intimate relationship with it.
Open your kitchen cupboards and have a look at the contents. Look in the bathroom and garden too. How many products have come from (or travelled over) the sea? Tuna chunks, Worcestershire sauce, sea salt - some of the connections are obvious. But what about toothpaste, lager, petrol, gravel in your drive? Regardless of where we live, we are all deeply dependent upon the sea as a source of produce, a route from A to B and the governor of our most cherished conversational topic - the weather.
We're not the only ones that depend upon the sea, though. Here in the South East our grey-green waters - and the reefs, shingle banks and sandflats they obscure - are home to a fantastic variety of plants and animals just waiting to be explored.
Life beneath the tides
Take the sea mouse. Though it resembles a small, psychedelic hedgehog, the sea mouse is actually related to the earthworm! A shy, burrowing creature, it lives in sand and mud off the South East, sniffing out tasty titbits as it ploughs through the soft sediment. No one knows the purpose of the sea mouse's bristly, technicolour dreamcoat, but scientists believe that study of the bristles' light-transmitting properties may revolutionise communications technology! Another local is the greater pipefish which, like its sea horse relatives, thinks pregnancy is men's work! The male bears the eggs in a pouch in his abdomen until they hatch, and then 'gives birth' to the young.
Seas at risk
Unfortunately, our marine life is in trouble, and we need to act urgently if we are to protect it. As much as 80% of marine pollution comes from land-based sources, reaching the sea via rivers and rain. Chemicals released in the production of food packaging and electrical goods have been linked to reproductive problems in shellfish and immune failure in dolphins. Nitrates and phosphates from our waste water upset the balance of our coastal waters, killing fish and other creatures.
The South East's marine life is also threatened by habitat loss. Coastal habitats such as mudflats, which are important breeding and feeding grounds for marine life, are being lost due to coastal development. Sea level rise is exacerbating the problem. Meanwhile, entire marine landscapes and habitats are being removed or permanently modified by gravel extraction for the construction industry and beach replenishment. Overexploitation of living resources may also be a problem. The once-abundant common skate is close to extinction in the southern North Sea, and there are signs of decline in other species too.
A different tack
Conservation of the seas requires a different tack as the approach that the Wildlife Trusts have honed on land can't work in quite the same way at sea. We can't buy the seabed and declare it a reserve. We can't send out teams of volunteers with loppers and bowsaws to prune back a kelp forest….and we can't let loose herds of limpets to graze an algal meadow! While there is a role for marine protected areas in the South East, marine conservation will only succeed if wider measures are also applied, relating to all aspects of marine use: if the sea is managed sustainably, not just exploited for short term gain. Thus the part played by the Wildlife Trusts is that of watchdog, lobbyist and partnership builder, working to highlight marine environmental issues, and to work with government, industry, regulators and the public to improve marine management - for wildlife and for people.
