ALL AT SEA | DECEMBER 2009 | news@allatsea.co.uk
Street rescue
News in brief Expensive mistakes A RIB driver from Poole pleaded guilty at New Forest Magistrates Court to navigating his RIB without due care and exceeding the six knot speed limit in Lymington River. He committed three offences including using his boat for waterskiing in Lymington Harbour – and was fined £500 for each offence. He was also ordered to pay £1,127.50 costs to Lymington Harbour Commissioners and £15 to the Victims’ Fund.
Call for volunteers THE biennial Commodores’ Cup – one of the most prestigious events in the international yachting calendar and won by Team GBR Red in 2008 – is up for grabs at Cowes next summer. It is an intense seven-day inshore and offshore racing programme for IRC (endorsed) rated yachts on the testing waters in and around the Solent from 15 to 21 August 2010. Now the RYA is looking for boats to take up the British challenge. www.rorc.org
Portland jobs UP to 50 new jobs could be created following an agreement to build 17 new small business units at Osprey Quay the former Royal Navy Air Station at Portland.
Photo: RNLI / Howard Fields
RNLI volunteers from across the north of England and North Wales joined other emergency services in the mammoth flood rescue operation in Cumbria. They rescued dozens of people, including some very young children and elderly people, from flooded homes in Cockermouth, where flood water was surging through the streets at speeds of up to 25 knots. Flood water was so high in places they were rescuing people from first floor windows. Simon Bunting, crewmember at RNLI Beaumaris, said: “Driving boats up high streets is a bit out of the norm but we are all trained for swift water rescue.” Sarah Nimmo-Scott, RNLI Deputy Divisional Inspector North, said: “The RNLI Flood Rescue Team coped brilliantly.” The RNLI Workington lifeboat was also involved in a sea search for a policeman who died after a bridge collapsed in the town.
Conservationists welcome Marine Act NATURE conservationists at Natural England have hailed the Marine and Coastal Access Act as once in lifetime opportunity to enhance and protect the marine environment. Following Royal Assent for the Act, Dr Helen Phillips, chief executive of Natural England, said: “The new Act is an enormously positive step forward and represents a once in a lifetime opportunity to deliver a sustainable future for our marine environment and the many human activities that
depend upon it.” “The marine environment urgently needs greater protection from the overexploitation and damage that has been inflicted upon it. “At last we have a mechanism for safeguarding threatened marine ecosystems and for managing the multiple uses of our seas. By any definition, this is a watershed moment for marine conservation.” She added: “Marine Conservation Zones are urgently needed in order
to protect England’s most important marine wildlife and undersea landscapes. “They need to be sufficiently large, diverse and interconnected to address ecological needs, but they also need to function effectively alongside other uses of the marine environment. This has to be a collaborative process and we want everyone who uses the sea to be involved from the outset in developing recommendations on where the new conservation zones should be located.”
A new project has been established by Defra, Natural England and the Joint Nature Conservation Committee and spearheaded by four independent regional stakeholder groups who will have a key role in determining the boundaries of the new Marine Conservation Zones. The regional projects are Balanced Seas in the south east, Finding Sanctuary in th south west, the Irish Seas Conservation Zones and Net Gain in the north east.
Consultation starts on European marine sites A FORMAL consultation on 12 proposed new marine conservation sites started last month. The sites are being put forward as the latest additions to the ‘Natura 2000’ network of European protected areas designed to protect important habitats, species and birds. The 12 proposed new sites consist of ten possible Special Areas of Conservation (and two potential Special Protection Areas) which incorporate a range of important habitats and species - from the sandbanks of the Outer Wash and southern North Sea to
areas in the Irish Sea that are important for birds, and to the cold water coral reefs off north-west Scotland. Natural England, the Joint Nature Conservation Committee and the Countryside Council for Wales are asking for comment on the scientific reasons for proposing the sites and on the likely impacts of the site designation on marine industries such as fishing, recreation, sand and gravel extraction, windfarms and the oil and gas industry. www.naturalengland.org.uk
Transglobe crews Online auction set for race mode of unique gifts FORTY-two British forces service personnel set off from Perth in Western Australia on three 67-foot steel-hulled yachts leaving Fremantle Sailing Club to tackle a 2,200 nautical mile voyage through the Australian Bight and the notorious Bass Strait en route to Sydney. This is the fifth and a relatively short stage of a year-long, 13-leg tri-service adventurous sail training exercise for crew members, many of whom are complete sailing novices, and many of whom have only very recently returned from serving in Afghanistan and Iraq. In Australia the yachts will compete in the Rolex Sydney-Hobart race that starts on Boxing Day .
THE Pilotlight once in a lifetime’ auction of one-off Christmas gifts and money can’t buy experiences remains open on-line until December 9. Auction lots include: day on a 43-foot Beneteau yacht with a professional skipper, a fortnight’s work experience at The Moving Picture Company – the animation studio behind Harry Potter movies, a week’s work experience at the Spectator magazine. There is a chance to watch a live recording of SKY’s Soccer AM and VIP tickets to live recording of The X Factor. Pilotlight is a charity that helps other charities to grow. www.pilotlight.org.uk