Reserve call to protect coastline

It is claimed reserves would create healthier breeding environments

Areas of coastline should be protected marine reserves where fishing, dredging and oil exploration would be banned, The Wildlife Trusts has said.

The conservation body is calling for the Marine Bill to be included in the next Queen's speech.

The Menai Strait between Anglesey and Gwynedd and Skomer Island off Pembrokeshire are two areas they say could benefit as fully protected zones.

The body referred to reports of a drop in dolphins around the Welsh coastline.

The Wildlife Trusts' Lisa Chiltern said the introduction of marine reserves could help stop the reduction in dolphin numbers, along with helping other wildlife like seals and basking sharks.

"Marine reserves can contribute to marine life in a number of ways," she said.

"Firstly, they can help protect wildlife [that live] in the actual reserves, which is great for species attached to the sea bed.

The UK's marine environment has been exploited intensively, increasingly intensively I should say, for decades Lisa Chiltern, The Wildlife Trusts

"They can also help mobile species, like dolphins, seals and basking sharks, by creating far healthier environments for them to give birth."

In a report, the organisation has named 15 sites around the UK which they say illustrate how marine reserves would protect wildlife.

"The UK's marine environment has been exploited intensively, increasingly intensively I should say, for decades," Ms Chiltern added.

"And there's increasing pressure from commercial fisheries, from development, for energy, including renewable energy and so on. There are lots of signs that things are not well."

The Menai Strait has been named as an area which needs a reserve

The Wildlife Trusts have been campaigning for many years for legislation to better protect UK waters, home to more than 44,000 animal and plant species, from corals to basking sharks.

In March the government launched the Marine Bill which, as well as creating protected areas, aims to improve the regulation of inshore fisheries and ease planning for offshore industry.

The Wildlife Trusts are calling for this bill to be included in next month's Queen's Speech - a step towards it becoming legislation - and for it to include the creation of marine reserves.

Ms Chiltern said: "There are protected areas already around the UK in our seas, including off the Welsh coast in Welsh territorial seas, but these do not provide a very high level of protection.

"They're multi-use areas where fishing and dredging and other activities frequently continue."