POLICY

The Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom: supporting policy and management

• Current
• The Marine Environmental Change Network (MECN)
• MarLIN (Marine Life Information Network)
• DASSH (The Data Archive for Seabed Species and Habitats)
• History

Current

There are a number of ways in which the MBA supports marine policy and management.

Consultations

The MBA draws on scientific expertise within the organisation to provide responses to consultations relating to the marine environment and to Marine Research. Click on the links to access consultation responses provided by the MBA.

Advice

MBA Scientists provide advice to decision makers by undertaking research to support policy, providing reports and other policy targeted outputs, sitting on policy related groups and committees and providing advice on a one-to-one basis. The MBA has also given evidence to parliamentary committees and given presentations at key policy events.

The Marine Environmental Change Network (MECN)

The Marine Environmental Change Network (MECN) is a collaboration between organisations in England, Scotland, Wales, Isle of Man and Northern Ireland collecting long-term time series information for marine waters. It is coordinated by the Marine Biological Association of the UK (MBA) and is funded by the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA).

A key objective of the MECN is "ensuring that information is provided to policy makers and other end-users to enable them to produce more accurate assessments of ecosystem state and have a clearer understanding of factors influencing change in marine ecosystems". The link between long-term time series and UK policy is explored in Chapter 4 of the report 'The evaluation of time series: their scientific value and contribution to policy needs. (2006) Marine Biological Association Occasional Publications No. 22.'

The MECN is engaged in proving evidence to a number of policy and knowledge transfer programmes including the Marine Climate Change Impacts Partnership (MCCIP) and the United Kingdom Marine Monitoring and Assessment Strategy (UKMMAS).

Marlin

The Marine Life Information Network (MarLIN) provides information to support marine environmental management, conservation and education.

MarLIN has pioneered the use of the Internet and World Wide Web to disseminate marine environmental information since 1998. MarLIN's information resources have been designed in liaison with Government agencies, national conservation agencies, educators and the marine recording community.

The Biodiversity and Conservation Science (BACS) programme of MarLIN is tailored to the needs of policy makers, decision makers and environmental managers, and focuses on species and habitats of importance in the UK. In addition, BACS undertakes contract research to provide marine advice and management solutions for UK Government and conservation agencies, NGOs, and the European Union, in the areas of marine spatial planning, sensitivity assessment, impact assessment, non-native species, and marine protected areas.

The Education and Outreach programme aims to raise awareness about the UK's marine biodiversity and its conservation, using a mixture of outreach products and activities for special projects, for schools and the general public.

In addition, MarLIN runs a marine life recording scheme to engage the public and naturalists alike in recording threatened species and habitats and the spread of non-native species.

MarLIN also developed approaches to the free dissemination of marine environmental data, resulting in its sibling project, the Data Archive for Seabed Species and Habitats (DASSH).

DASSH

DASSH (Data Archive for Seabed Species and Habitats) is the UK archive for marine biodiversity data.

DASSH is an accredited Data Archive Centre within the MEDIN (Marine Environmental Data and Information Network) framework, and provides access to biological datasets to support the management of the marine environment.

DASSH disseminates data through it's own web site and through the UK National Biodiversity Network and to international data resources such as GBIF (Global Biodiversity Information Facility) and OBIS (Ocean Biogeographic Information System).

Data from DASSH can be used to support marine spatial planning, environmental impact assessments and the designation of marine protected areas.

History

The MBA has a long history in engaging with marine policy and management and issues and in fact was originally established to answer such questions. In 1866 a Royal Commission on Sea Fisheries, which included Professor Thomas Huxley as one of its members recommended doing away with existing regulations relating to sea fishing as fears relating to over-exploitation of fish were thought to be unfounded. In one of his most famous comments Huxley, in his inaugural address to the International Fisheries Exhibition in London 1883 stated that "I believe that it may be affirmed with confidence that, in relation to our present modes of fishing, a number of the most important sea fisheries, such as the cod fishery, the herring fishery, and the mackerel fishery, are inexhaustible"¹.

However, Professor Edwin Ray Lankester put forward the views of many who disagreed with Huxley's statement by arguing that man could have a significant impact on fish stocks so that "the natural balance is upset"^{2, 3}. Lankester went on to propose the formation of a society to answer such questions and Huxley became the first president of the society when it was established in 1884⁴. The main source of funding came from the UK Government who wanted to support the association's activities towards the ends of "conducting research, collecting statistics and advising on legislation". Much support in setting up the MBA was given by the then minister for the Board of Trade (which was then responsible for fisheries) Joseph Chamberlain⁴.

Although the remit of the MBA became much wider than just fisheries investigations, the Association has continued to make sure that both the scientific research and scientific expertise within the organisation is used to inform policy and management.

References

1. Huxley, T. (1884). Inaugural address. Fisheries Exhibition Literature. 4: 1-22.
2. Lankester, E. R. (1884). The scientific results of the exhibition. Fisheries Exhibition Literature. 4: 505 - 445.
3. Sims, D. W. & Southward, A. J. (2006). Dwindling fish numbers already of concern in 1883. Nature. 439:660.
4. Southward, A. J. & Roberts (1987). The Marine Biological Association 1884 - 1984. One hundred years of marine research. Journal of the Marine Biological Association. 67: 465 - 506.