Turning the tide: Dorset Marine Conservation Fund

Aim

Turning the tide: The Dorset Marine Conservation Fund.

Wow, thank you to our wonderful supporters!

Our Dorset coast is truly amazing and enjoyed by so many.  However in recent decades our seas have seen rapid declines in marine habitats and wildlife.  Many marine species, such as the common skate, sturgeon, angel shark and crawfish, are now very rarely seen or gone altogether.

Spiny-seahorse © Emma Rance

Dorset Wildlife Trust has created The Dorset Marine Conservation Fund to provide funds for our vital marine conservation and educational work and to enable us to take action now to get statutory protection and wise management for more of Dorset's seas.

We will use donations as the 'match funding' needed for grant applications; so for every £1 donated up to £10 more may be released through grants from marine conservation work.

Help us secure Studland Bay as a Marine Protected Area (MPA)

• Studland Bay is a colourful and wildlife-rich underwater world, home to enigmatic seahorses, colour-changing cuttlefish, rare rays and a host of other marine creatures.

• If left unprotected the sensitive underwater ecosystem of Studland Bay could experience severe degeneration and loss of habitat due to over-use.

• Our plan is for continued recreational use of the Bay alongside a protected and thriving ecosystem.

Help us create England’s first protected area for marine giants

• With no areas of English waters protected for these magnificent creatures they are struggling for survival.

• A new Marine Protected Area is being proposed in the south west portion of Lyme Bay, a nationally important foraging area for white-beaked dolphins. There are also important numbers of harbour porpoise, common dolphin, minke whale, basking shark, Manx and Balearic shearwater, guillemot, razorbill, great skua and gannet.

 Weymouth Harbour common dolphins © Marc Smith

Help us gather and share vital data for the protection of Dorset’s seas and marine wildlife

• We need to enable our marine ecologists to carry out further research and survey work to provide key data to help establish more MPAs and ensure those already establsihed are better managed.

• Our Marine Team will also use the information, along with our local knowledge, to take further steps to improve Dorset’s marine environment and reverse the decline in wildlife.We will forge closer relationships and share knowledge with partners such as local anglers, fishing communities, Dorset Coast Forum, Southern Inshore Fisheries & Conservation Authority and other south west Wildlife Trusts.

• We will involve local people in gathering wildlife data; such as continuing with our seal sighting project which is enabling us to better understand local populations of grey and harbour seals.

Help us widen awareness of Dorset’s rich marine environment

• Raising awareness of MPAs and promoting public support and participation in their conservation is vital if they are to succeed.

• The Purbeck Marine Wildlife Reserve and our Fine Foundation Marine Centre is well positioned, on the shore of Kimmeridge Bay, to enable people to get involved in marine conservation.

• It is a ‘gateway’ to our marine environment and DWT will introduce an innovative range of new activities and interactive displays at the Marine Centre that will enable people to learn about and enjoy Dorset’s amazing Marine Protected Areas and help to conserve them for future generations to enjoy.

Please help us if you can...

Great news! 100% of any gift you can give to The Dorset Marine Conservation Fund will go directly to where the need is greatest to ensure greater protection of Dorset’s marine environment.  Plus, we will use donations as the ‘match funding’ needed for grant applications; so for every £1 donated through this appeal up to £10 more may be released through grants for marine conservation work.

A gift of:

• £10 will feed the Marine Centre aquarium animals for 1 month.
• £20 would enable us to survey four hectares of seabed using multibeam echosounders.
• £50 could cover the cost of producing a Seashore Explorer Pack.
• £100 could set-up a marine hatchery tank, for hatching stranded cuttlefish, squid and catshark eggs.
• £250 will buy a trail camera and fittings for seal monitoring diving.    
• £500 will cover a full days boat charter for survey diving.

We will also enter all pledgers into a prize draw to win a seahorse adoption. We have five to give away!

Thank you, together we can turn the tide and help Dorset’s marine environment to recover from decades of decline.

Will you be one of the founders of The Dorset Marine Conservation Fund?

Dorset Wildlife Trust is a long established charity (No: 200222), our work to restore Living Seas focuses on:

• Establishing Marine Protected Areas ­- making sure that marine wildlife is properly protected.

• Improving our understanding of our seas

• Educating and involving everyone

Underpinning all this work is our longstanding effort to better understand the marine habitats of Dorset. With the help of remote sensing techniques and an army of volunteer divers we now have one of the best­ understood areas of seabed in the UK.

We are uniquely placed to lead and deliver local marine conservation programmes and influence decision makers to protect and secure Dorset’s fragile marine ecosystems.

 The expertise of our staff and volunteers, and unparalleled local knowledge built up over many decades of work, has enabled us to play a significant role in establishing the first few Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in our waters and helped many people to learn about and enjoy Dorset’s amazing marine world. However, there is still much we need to do to secure a safe future for our fabulous undersea environment. There are significant gaps in the network of protected sites and the last chance to fill those gaps is fast approaching.

We simply do not have the funds at present to enable us to realise our vision of marine wildlife thriving in our coastal waters, recovering from past decline as we use the sea’s resources more wisely and learn to value the sea for the many ways in which it supports our quality of life.

Please support The Dorset Marine Conservation Fund; so that we can turn the tide on local marine wildlife decline.

This project successfully funded on 8th July 2016