Speeches by Gardiner.

“You are not talking about the dredging in the north-east that saw the die-off there—or that did not see the die-off there?”

“One of my colleagues will be asking a question about that.”

“We have heard that we have the best marine science in the world, so I am sure the evidence base is out there. Maybe we just need to gather it together a bit quicker. We have touched on regulation and enforcement, the implementation and the management regimes. I think you have said that currently they are perhaps less t…”

“The difficulty with that, though, Ms Godwin, is that in the meantime other potentially important sites for highly protected marine areas could be disintegrating while we wait and see how it is going with the highly protected ones. I would have thought the precautionary principle should cut in and we should say, “These …”

“Thank you. That is really helpful. I do not want to pass over the equally important point that you made, where you talked about how at the moment we have designation of features, rather than adopting a whole site approach. It would be extremely helpful if you wanted to suggest to the Committee in writing afterwards rec…”

“That would be really helpful.”

“That is a really important point about cumulative impact. How would we take that on board in this Committee and make that a recommendation to Government?”

“Again, if this Committee were making comment in that area, we should emphasise that there must be net gain not only to offset the damage but to provide increased benefit and sustainability. Under the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009 and the habitats regulations there is the possibility for derogation on some of the m…”

“That is very interesting. Is that something that you would like to see this Committee recommend—that when the JNCC gives advice, the Government, or the regulator in this case, should be obliged to respond to that advice and say how they have accounted for it and taken it on board? Would that be helpful?”

“You are silver-tongued, you two. Just three weeks ago the Office for Environmental Protection announced that it was investigating DEFRA about its suspected failure to take the necessary measures to achieve or maintain good environmental status. That goes to the fact that of the 15 descriptors of good environmental stat…”

“You talked about the extent of the time that it took for areas to recover once destructive activity such as bottom trawling had ceased. Can you recall how long it took for Lyme Bay to recover?”

“Absolutely right.”

“I think our species has done more damage to the rest of nature than any other species that has ever lived, and we are in danger. If you look at the world wildlife curve, 69% of species populations have been depleted in the last 50 years. I do not think that the preservation of us should be the top of our list. We prese…”

“Stages 3 and 4 should have been done by the end of last year. Do we have any update on when we are expecting that? In that case, would you like to see this Committee make a recommendation that they get on with the job?”

“You both are.”

“Indeed. Under the putative agreement, who will pay for the enforcement of that in the future to ensure that those pressures do not increase?”

“Indeed. Under the putative agreement, who will pay for the enforcement of that in the future to ensure that those pressures do not increase?”

“We are only talking about a maximum of 10% of the English waters, are we not? That is what the Benyon review recommended. If we are talking about establishing that, it leaves you 90% for our balanced approach, which I wholly support.”

“Yes, but there has been a marked improvement in a period as small as five years, has there not?”

“You talked about the extent of the time that it took for areas to recover once destructive activity such as bottom trawling had ceased. Can you recall how long it took for Lyme Bay to recover?”