Nationally important marine seascapes, habitats and species (ENRR392)

The Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR) established a working group to review marine nature conservation. This forum was set up to help Government develop possible future mechanisms to protect, conserve and manage nationally important marine wildlife in the seas around England. The original remit of the Working Group focussed on territorial waters, but this position was revised in the summer of 2000 to cover the continental shelf and superjacent waters under jurisdiction (usually up to 200 nautical miles from the coast), The Working Group has a wide membership drawn from statutory and non-statutory organisations industry and user groups with a particular interest in thc marine environment. This report is one of four submitted by English Nature to the Working Group in 2000.