Chapter 7: Common Issues and Regional Perspectives

The regional analyses link the benefits and pressures of human activity associated with each region to the impacts they have on the marine environment. These allow scientists and managers to focus on specific regional issues and problems. They enable UK, devolved, regional and local administrations to prioritise their planning and use of resources, and to contribute to the development of the marine plans that are now being drawn up.

Key findings

All of the regions support, or are affected by, human activities but more remote regions such as the Atlantic North-West Approaches have little activity compared to regions such as the North Sea and Irish Sea, which are closer to centres of human population.
The varied extent of human use leads to different pressures. Each of the regions makes an important contribution to the economy and jobs and, in most cases, the environmental footprint of industry is small as a result of good regulation.
Despite a reduction in fishing effort or change in the nature of the fishing activities in several regions, fishing continues to be a widespread pressure on both target and non-target fish stocks and on significant areas of seabed sediment habitats.
Rising sea temperature and rising sea levels affect all regions. The threat of increasing coastal erosion and flooding is greatest in the south and east of England, where the land is sinking and where changes to the marine ecosystem associated with rising temperature are most apparent.
The threat due to pollution by hazardous substances and nutrients is greatest around the coasts of England and Wales although inputs are declining in most areas. There is a legacy of past contamination that will be present for some time even though the required management measures are in place.
There are significant changes in the populations of seabirds and seals across the different regions but the causes are often unclear, and could be due to both human and environmental changes.

Improvements in assessment methodology and future requirements

The more holistic picture presented here of how well we are using the sea helps to identify, and place in context, barriers preventing our progress towards the vision of clean, healthy, safe, productive and biologically diverse oceans and seas. The aggregation of information, either on a geographical basis or across different pressures and impacts, is an important step towards applying an ecosystem approach but there is some way to go before we can deliver a truly ‘integrated’ assessment.

Rising sea temperature and rising sea levels affect all regions. The threat of increasing coastal erosion and flooding is greatest in the south and east of England, where the land is sinking and where changes to the marine ecosystem associated with rising temperature are most apparent.

The threat due to pollution by hazardous substances and nutrients is greatest around the coasts of England and Wales although inputs are declining in most areas. There is a legacy of past contamination that will be present for some time even though the required management measures are in place.

There are significant changes in the populations of seabirds and seals across the different regions but the causes are often unclear, and could be due to both human and environmental changes.

Gaps in knowledge

Our knowledge of the sea is patchy and needs improving. While there is often good information for coastal areas, there are generally few data for the offshore parts of most regions. Innovation in data collection is required.

To support the management and sustainable use of our seas, we need to develop new tools for integrating varied and disparate information across different scales of time and space.

CP2 Report Navigation