Name your local recommended Marine Conservation Zone
Community members of East Sussex, we need you!
Your local sea is very special! So special in fact, it has the potential to be designated as a Marine Conservation Zone (MCZ), a type of marine protected area that safeguards some of the nations best or most vulnerable seabed habitats and marine wildlife.
The area we are talking about runs from Beachy Head lighthouse along the mean high water line all the way to Hastings Pier. It also extends out 6 nautical miles (7 miles/ 11km!), around the Royal Sovereign lighthouse. It's a really significant size, covering about 193km2, making it potentially the biggest inshore marine protected area in Sussex! If designated, it could protect the rare chalk and sandstone reefs, important blue mussel beds, seahorses, vulnerable native oysters and the endangered European eel.
This summer the government are going to be consulting on their third and final round of MCZ designations and they have named this area 'Beachy Head East'. The Agents of Change Project is running a community-focused campaign to help the local support for the designation of 'Beachy Head East' really shine. Lots of community members are already behind the designation, including fishermen, divers, anglers and all local MPs.
During our travels, however, not everyone has liked the name 'Beachy Head East' and the ideas below were suggested. We shouldn't be the ones who decide what to call the campaign for your local marine protected area. So please vote on your favourite name and share this poll with your friends! The name with the most votes by Friday 15th June 2018 will be the one we use in our campaign.
Thank you so much for your time! If you want to find out more about 'Beachy Head East' rMCZ or the campaign for its designation, please contact alice.tebb@mcsuk.org.
This work is being run by the Agents of Change, a project that is led by the Marine Conservation Society with Fauna and Flora International and the New Economics Foundation and funded by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. This campaign is partnered with the Angling Trust and Clean Seas Please and funded by the Marine Protected Area Fighting Fund.