Recommendation 19

We reiterate the conclusions and recommendations of our predecessor Committee’s 2019 inquiry into Sustainable Seas. (Paragraph 97) • Ministers must urgently set out a timetable to put management plans and monitoring in place for all MPAs. • Different categories of destructive bottom trawling should be banned or restricted in all MPAs, and more MPAs should be established as ‘no-take’ zones with benefits for the local fishing industry and for marine biodiversity. • MPAs established by the Blue Belt programme need to meet international best practice guideless, set by the International Union for Conservation of Nature for designation. • MPAs need to be monitored to deter illegal activity and to establish if species and habitats are recovering, to inform future designations and adaptive management decisions. • The Government should make better use of data from automatic identification systems installed in vessels operating in MPAs to understand the activity in these areas; the operators of vessels with these systems installed ought to be under an obligation to keep the systems active when in areas requiring monitoring. • The Government should establish a fully integrated monitoring and surveillance regime for satellite tracking of illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing in UK territorial waters.