1 2018 REVIEW MARINE FOUNDATION BLUE Blue Marine Foundation 2018 REVIEW 2 3 2018 REVIEW MARINE FOUNDATION BLUE 2018 REVIEW MARINE FOUNDATION BLUE Contents 4 Annual Overview 6 BLUE’s Mission, Strategy and Focus 8 Key Achievements 10 2018 in Brief 14 Projects Map 16 UK Overseas Territories 18 Ascension 20 St Helena 22 Bermuda and Ascension 24 The Solent and Blackwater 26 Lyme Bay 28 Sustainable fishing in the UK 30 Marine Parks 32 Pulse Fishing and Fisheries Bill 34 Aeolian Islands and the Mediterranean 36 The Maldives 38 Azerbaijan and Patagonia 40 Protecting the High Seas 42 Education 46 London to Monaco 50 Blue Marine Yacht Club 52 Corporate Partners 54 BLUE Team and Trustees 56 Thank You 58 Financial Overview Galapagos shark chasing triggerfish off Ascension’s Long Beach. Photo by Polly Burns. Cover photo: Pipefish (corythoichthys intestinalis) by Viv Evans. 4 5 2018 REVIEW MARINE FOUNDATION BLUE 2018 REVIEW MARINE FOUNDATION BLUE 2018 Reflections on 2018 There are parts of the world where time is moving faster than at home. I was thinking this the other day in the Maldives, a country totally reliant A breakthrough on its marine assets - its coral reefs and mangrove ecosystems. These assets are under increasing pressure from 135 new resorts, new airports, overfishing, warming sea temperatures, pollution and waste. There are year for BLUE lights on the horizon at night where there were none five years ago. I was there to celebrate the election Bringing new money into conservation of a more democratic government was one of the things BLUE was set up with a strong environmental manifesto, to do and this year we had our best- but that government will have to move ever London to Monaco sponsored fast, and we, BLUE, will have to assist cycle ride with over a hundred cyclists them if this country’s marine assets setting off from South London. are not to decline further. I heard This was a year when we celebrated people saying that in many places the some notable policy achievements quality of the diving, which has made in the UK, including the first-ever the Maldives such a destination for conference on marine parks organised tourists, continues to go down. What with Plymouth City Council after which will it be like with even more resorts? the idea of a marine park in Plymouth Earlier this summer, we were struck Sound received an affirmative nod when Lewis Pugh, UN Patron of the from Michael Gove, the Environment Oceans, remarked how little wildlife he Secretary. I am pleased to note that actually saw on his Long Swim up the Gove’s announcement of working English Channel. But it is not a state of towards protection of 30 per cent Dear Friends, affairs that we should, or need to, put of the world’s oceans has also been up with. For nature has extraordinary BLUE’s aspiration for some time. What a breakthrough year for BLUE! powers of regeneration and has It was a tough campaigning year demonstrated them in some of our The oceans have finally become the focus of attention, in part at times, with a setback for ocean projects on the South Coast such as due to the huge success of Blue Planet II - in the wake of which our conservation in the South Sandwich Lyme Bay and the Solent. team drove record-breaking engagement and conservation action. Islands, where the Foreign Secretary BLUE’s strategy is to focus on places has not yet offered the full protection Our donors and corporate partners have been unbelievably that have a chance and make them for which the Great British Oceans supportive and engaged, resulting in a new high-water year for better. The British Overseas Territories coalition and 285 MPs have been BLUE. We have had incredible worldwide conservation wins and are a broad canvas and BLUE remains campaigning. Our campaign against developed new innovations in fisheries management spreading engaged in the creation of reserves electric pulse fishing, hugely helped by across Europe and further afield. Our visionary media unit will around St Helena and Ascension, our new media unit, secured a ban on deliver these conservation success stories to the world. where we hope to achieve a marine this damaging method in British waters BLUE will continue getting bigger, better and faster as we race to reserve in 100 per cent of the island’s after Brexit. And we were involved in meet our target of protecting 30 per cent of the world’s oceans waters. BLUE has been working hard discussions about how to improve the by 2030. around the Mediterranean and this Fisheries Bill, arguing for it to make year we managed to secure the first- clear that Britain’s marine life is a BLUE is laser focused and the time for effective, actual marine ever marine protected area in the public asset and should be managed conservation is now. We must do everything we can to ensure Caspian Sea. on behalf of everyone. On all fronts, we have healthy oceans to protect life on Earth. we continue to drive towards our goal of a healthy ocean. Our growing and brilliant team have made ocean magic happen this year and we are proud of all of them. Please continue to CHARLES CLOVER support us on our critical mission. EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR GEORGE DUFFIELD & CHRIS GORELL BARNES CO-FOUNDERS 6 7 2018 REVIEW MARINE FOUNDATION BLUE BLUE’s vision BLUE’s focus 2018 REVIEW MARINE FOUNDATION BLUE Our oceans are in crisis. Marine life is under threat from climate Our ocean is being simultaneously assaulted on multiple fronts. change, acidification, agricultural pollution and plastic. But arguably We recognise that, as a small yet ambitious charity, we must focus on the greatest threat of all is overfishing because if we strip the oceans the most serious threats which we can solve. The most macro of all ocean of all their life, they will have little resilience to the other threats. It is challenges, ocean warming and acidification, are related to climate the marine life in oceans that enables them to absorb half the world’s change and will require a continued concerted global effort to be effectively addressed. CO2 and produce half our oxygen. Overfishing therefore threatens the future of humanity. Plastic pollution is an issue that has captured BLUE’s vision is a healthy ocean forever, for everyone. BLUE’s aim is to the public imagination – perhaps because see 10 per cent of ocean under protection by 2020 and 30 per cent of images of plastic in the sea embody our ocean under protection by 2030. collective guilt about the damage we humans are inflicting on nature. But plastics are a land-based problem that ultimately must be addressed at source. The fight against plastics has become a reassuringly crowded space. BLUE’s strategy The fight against overfishing remains relatively under-resourced. Overfishing is one of the most solvable of all the world’s major environmental problems. BLUE will continue to focus on combatting overfishing and habitat destruction – two BLUE’s strategy is to: of the ocean’s greatest challenges which, if solved, will deliver massive environmental • Create marine protected areas – areas of ocean free from returns. We will address plastic pollution in industrial fishing – so that fish stocks can rapidly recover. local strategic interventions where we can move the dial – for example, ghost net removal • Materially contribute towards securing an international in the Aeolians, microplastic identification in agreement on the need to protect 30 per cent of the oysters and models of island waste disposal world’s ocean by 2030, including the high seas. in the UKOTs. • Develop models of sustainable fishing, proving that fishing But our main focus will be on protecting can be managed responsibly so that stocks recover while the marine life that ensures oceans are this benefiting local fishermen and coastal communities. planet’s life-support system. • Restore marine habitats, in order to protect vulnerable and threatened species. • Raise awareness about the need to address overfishing. Maldivian school girl snorkels for the first time as part of BLUE’s project on Laamu Atoll. Photo by Andy Ball. 8 9 2018 REVIEW MARINE FOUNDATION BLUE In 2017, BLUE, as part of the Great British Oceans 2018 REVIEW MARINE FOUNDATION BLUE coalition, secured an even stronger manifesto BLUE’s Key 2017 commitment from the UK Government ahead of the June 2017 election to protect over four million square Achievements kilometres of ocean around the UK overseas territories. In the summer of 2017, broodstock oysters in BLUE’s 2010-2018 2017 Solent Oyster Restoration Project spawned, releasing millions of larvae into the Solent. In 2010, BLUE brokered a deal to enable the creation of what was then the largest marine BLUE’s Lyme Bay model of sustainable fishing is 2010 2017- being rolled out in other sites in the UK and in the protected area (MPA) in the world around 2018 Chagos in the Indian Ocean. Mediterranean. In 2012, BLUE partnered with the government of BLUE spearheaded a social media campaign to Belize and the Bertarelli Foundation to protect the encourage the public to tweet and email their MPs, 2012 2017- Turneffe Atoll in Belize, an area rich in biodiversity 2018 resulting in 285 MPs from eight political parties signing and CO2 absorbing mangroves. up to the Blue Belt Charter by the end of 2018. In 2015, the Great British Oceans coalition, The UK government announced a target of 30 per cent of which BLUE is part, secured a UK government 2015 of ocean protected by 2030, aligning with BLUE’s commitment to create the world’s largest marine 2018 long-term strategy.