The Marine Conservation Society (MCS) has raised serious concerns about the safety of marine wildlife along the route of the 2008 Round Britain Powerboat Race, starting from Portsmouth today. The race organisers have announced last-minute re-routing of the race, heeding MCS warnings about the potential for lethal race boat collisions with basking sharks at known shark hotspots along the race route. However, MCS remains concerned that other marine wildlife including seabirds, seals, whales and dolphins may be hit along the route by the high-speed boats, or disturbed by their noise.
“Whilst we applaud the race organisers for acting on our advice about basking sharks, MCS is still concerned that other marine wildlife is at risk from collisions, or disturbance form boat noise,” said Dr Jean-Luc Solandt, MCS Biodiversity Policy Officer, “ We urge the race boat pilots to be highly vigilant along the route and slow right down in the vicinity of any marine wildlife. This is as much for the pilots’ sake as the welfare of wildlife, because collisions with seabirds and marine mammals, not to mention 12metre long basking sharks, pose a serious health and safety risk to the race participants!”
Since the Powerboat Race organisers were sent UK shark distribution maps from the MCS Basking Shark Watch project, which has collated reports of over 10,000 basking shark sightings from the public over the past 21 years, they have introduced a number of measures to minimize the likelihood of basking shark collision. These include compulsory GPS waypoints that guide the race away from basking shark hotspots along the race route; provision of advisory avoidance GPS waypoints; and daily information briefings to boat pilots regarding known marine wildlife activity in the area. Basking sharks, whales and dolphins are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act and it is therefore illegal to intentionally kill, recklessly disturb or harass these species in UK waters.
“Without the efforts of thousands of volunteers providing us with their basking shark reports, we wouldn’t have been in the position to inform the race organizers of the hazards posed by the basking shark feeding hotspots. This situation demonstrates the invaluable contribution of MCS Basking Shark Watch and wildlife sightings schemes,” said Dr Solandt, “However, the last minute approach the organisers have taken is far from ideal. We feel the conservation and welfare of marine wildlife should have been considered in the race planning a long time ago – if MCS, and other wildlife groups had been consulted sooner we could have done more to help.”
To report a basking shark sighting along the route or from anywhere else in the UK, please visit the MCS website sightings pages, and enter the details of your shark sighting: www.mcsuk.org
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For more information, maps and photographs contact the following MCS staff:
Dr Jean-Luc Solandt, Biodiversity Policy Officer, 01989 566 017
Sue Ranger, Wildlife Projects Officer 01989 566 017
Richard Harrington, Communications Manager. 01989 566 017
Editor’s Notes
The Marine Conservation Society is the UK Charity dedicated to the protection of our seas, shores and wildlife. Since its formation in 1983, MCS has become a recognised authority on marine and coastal conservation and is regularly consulted by Government for its views on a range of marine issues. MCS provides information and guidance on many aspects of marine conservation and produces the annual Good Beach Guide, as well as promoting public participation in volunteer projects and surveys such as Adopt-a-Beach, Seasearch and Basking Shark Watch. See www.mcsuk.org for more information.
Basking sharks are long-lived, produce six or so young only when they reach between 12 and 18 years, and are therefore extremely vulnerable to targeted fishing. As a result they were banned from being fished in UK waters in 1998. It appears that their population is showing signs of recovery in the past 10 years, as the mean size of animals, and numbers of public sightings have increased. Sharks have been protected from any form of harvesting under Common Fisheries Policy Regulations since 2007 in all EU waters as a result of a listing under the Bonn Convention on Migratory Species in 2005. The Marine Conservation Society was instrumental in these campaigns to gain better protection measures for the shark. Through satellite tagging projects it has been revealed that basking sharks move between territorial waters of EU nations (e.g. UK, France, Ireland) and across ocean basins (Europe to North America and North to South America). These migrations appear to be normal foraging behaviour, as the sharks seek their plankton prey.
The 2008 Round Britain 2008 Powerboat Race organisers have announced the following measures to avoid race boat collision with marine wildlife:
· “Compulsory waypoints to avoid the most hazardous areas (e.g. Land’s End; The Lizard; Start Point; Southwest and Northwest Wales; Isle of Man).
· Advisory ‘avoidance waypoints’ to allow boats to stay well clear of any potential problem areas should their chosen route take them close to a hot spot.
· Daily briefings about known animal activity in the area and information clarifying potential problem areas. All relevant information will be included in the race briefing materials (which is being consulted on by a range of highly experienced stakeholders). The craft will vary in length and speed and the race starts will be staggered to allow for the fleet to stretch out.”
In June 2005, the Isle of Man government and representatives from the Manx Wildlife Trusts prevented a powerboat race from carrying out a round-island race, in order to prevent collisions in south and west coast basking shark hotspot areas. The race was instead re-routed and contained within around Douglas Bay on the east coast of the island. This action was also resulted from MCS provision of Basking Shark Watch data.
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