Sam Blampied: The past, present and future of Jersey's marine environment

Everyone, well, while that note is, um, just quickly start by saying I uh joined the Soote uh marine biology section back in 2014 when I was about 20, um, and then I've been part of that section for, well, since then, um, I was cosec for a little while with Chantel, who's in the room now, um, so I've been.

Yeah, I've been developing my marine knowledge of the islands for a while now, um, and I want to give you a little bit of a background about um the Soo's role in our understanding of our marine environment, um, and also, um, I'll set the context of why the marine environment is important for our culture and our economics in Jersey as well.

Um, and also the sociote. And being part of the marine biology section led me to do my PhD research, um, and which was then, which was, um, part of Plymouth University. um, Societe helps with some of the funding as well as the Blue Marine Foundation, and it was in collaboration with Marine Resources, which is where I now work. So that's how I've got to where I am now. Um so past, present and future of Jersey's marine environment. So, so, um, in terms of the first settlers.

And we have evidence going back um to the Neolithic, but also in the the Bronze Age, um, the minkes, um, where there was evidence of hunting for seals and fish, but also um at Hogby there's oyster shells, there's evidence that there's been, there's been fishing's been, um, relied on by islanders for a long time. And um we've got fish traps in these tidal zones and this sort of slowly led into as we became established as a society, there were more um commercial efforts for for fishing as well. So, um, the, the congres we know have been fished since around the 13th century, um, but the actual export for these didn't take off until the 17th century and um. Um, so, Um, after that, sorry, we, a lot of our fishermen went off to Newfoundland to, to search for cod, and there's actually quite a lot, lot of Jersey, um, surnames in Newfoundland because some of them settled there and didn't come back.

Um, and there's, um, some of the old cod houses, um, in. Uh, round by, um, South Pier as well, and, uh, the, the rise and fall of the oyster fishing followed the um the cod industry, so.

Part part of this story, actually, sorry, I should have said this at the start is to do with we've had a lot of rise and falls in different fisheries and it's followed, um, sometimes it's been overexploitation, sometimes it's been a change in range of certain species, um, and all of this information has been really important for us to understand in terms of fisheries management, which is where the angle I sort of look at a lot of our marine biodiversity from now and um.

Um, following, so the, the oyster fishery collapsed in about 2 years, um, we used to have oyster beds to the east of the island off between, um, off Greyville, um, towards France.

Um, and they used to form this whole ecosystem in themselves. They were, they sort of grow on top of each other and you get these big. Oyster beds that form their own ecosystem, but the only way to fish for them is to dredge them up. And if you take too many of them away, that ecosystem falls apart, um, and you have a collapse of the fishery. And then once you lose one fishery, you target another one. so following the oyster was, um, we had primarily, um, wet fish being fished for, um, but then most of our commercial fisheries died away during the war. Um, it wasn't, it wasn't feasible for commercial fishing.

And then since then, um, the fisheries since since the war being crab and lobster and then scallops and that, those are the fisheries that we still have today, those are the ones that we primarily rely on. Um, yes, so we've got lobster is our, is the, the backbone of our fishing fleet, um, even though it's an invertebrate, so it's not hasn't got a backbone itself.

Um, and then spider crab and brown crab, although brown crab, sorry, that was a terrible joke. Brown row has been slowly declining for a long time now, um, where spider crabs are doing really well, um, and then we have whelk and, um, scallop is another, another big fishery here.

Um, but these are mostly small scale fisheries. They're all static. They have, um, very minimal impact on the seabed, but they have quite a big impact on the the species themselves, whereas we do have, um, scallop fishing, scallop dredging, both locally and from French boats, and they do have a bigger impact on the sea bed. Um, and this is part of the reason why we need to understand the marine environment and the sensitivity of it to some of these fisheries in order to be able to manage it appropriately to sustain the fisheries themselves but also the biodiversity to, um. To maintain the the well-being and the the the benefits we receive from the ocean that that supports our well-being, such as, um, well, food, but also um carbon capture and um water quality and sediment quality which keeps our keeps our seabed um marine ecosystem functioning.

And um, yes, so part of the.

I wanted to start by just explaining the importance of the marine environment to our to our fishing culture, um, and then explain why the marine uh research side is is important also.

So as marine environment in Jersey, we've, um, we've been expanding our knowledge for a long time. Um, and a lot of the, the comprehensive research that's been done in the past, um, has come from French studies, um, just across the way. So we have, um, Lehe and Rettier, they looked at the sediments. So what are the, what is the composition of our seabed and, um. And also the the hydrodynamics of the currents and how this affects um the the makeup of the seabed.

Um, but then we also have lots of local research that's helped to build on this, um, and lots of that's come from the socio, which I'll talk about in a minute. And um with sort of in the past we've sort of tried to manage fisheries based on. Uh, maximum yields, so how much can you take out before you, um, start to see declines in the stock, whereas actually we need to have a more holistic approach where we're looking at the environment itself, um, that's supporting those species. So if you're from a bottom up approach, if you have the habitats there that support them across all their life cycles, um, sort of a nature-based solution that Jonathan was talking about before. Um, if you have that sorted, if you've protected those habitats, then it will sustain those species, um, for going forward for future generations. And that's what we're trying to move towards that holistic approach. Um, so the marine biology section, um, was started in 1948 of this um of this Ausceasias used by Ronnie Lewer, um, and he's, um.

There was um There was quite a a lot of membership at the time, but I think it dropped off for a while and you get, um, I've got most of this information from Paul Chambers, who knows a lot more about the past of the Soto than I do.

um, but there's um, yeah, there's been waves of of interest in the marine biology section over time and it is driven by having those interested individuals in this section at the time and the the more of them there are together, the more impact that they can have. And um there's intertidal surveys that have been going on for for years. We go out as a group and um we will do transex um quadrats across the rocky shore to to monitor the species that are there, um, especially looking out for invasive species, um, anything that we think might cause trouble further down the line. And all that information will feed back into the environment department. So the Socite has a very, very strong role to play in monitoring, um, changes in our marine environment. Um, and they're also very good, um, it's also a great platform for engaging with the public as well. Um, and yeah, especially because all of that local expertise comes together in that one small group. Well, quite a big group and we're all together and um. Yeah, it's a, it's, it's a perfect think tank to to piece um pick apart problems that we're having.

Um, if there's, well, most recently, um, Jonathan already mentioned the um the no take zone that's now at Portlet Bay that was pushed through by suggested by the Soto many years ago, um, but then due to various political reasons, it never got, um, it never came to fruition. But now, um. Last year is finally uh in legislation, and that was very much pushed through by the marine biology section of the sausageta so it's something that, They're very, um, we're all very proud of and it's now part of the sociotas role to monitor changes in that bay.

So there'll be several different research um but they they've got their own research in there, but also there's a student every year through JCA who will um monitor changes in the bay, um, both in the intertidal Rocky shore but also using beta videos to look at the the mobile species assemblages in there. And um also um by. Putting um drop cameras down so. Understanding the the benthic makeup of a of a habitat or of a bay is a lot trickier because you can't see it from satellites, um, you can't take aerial images, so you've got to get down there yourself.

um, and diving is very expensive and can be quite dangerous. So we normally try and put remote cameras down to to understand the habitats down there and see if they're changing, um, particularly there's a small seagrass bed in in Port Bay, so we're hoping, um, we can monitor any differences or any change in the um. The species associated with those habitats in there. Um, and again, um, for despite, um, all the research we've done over the years, we actually don't have a very good idea of what our local seabed is. We do have maps now, but they do need ground truthing. Um, so we've had uh Jersey Marine Conservation, they've done lots of diving with the with um volunteers who've come from this this section from the Soci. And um we've had the um it's part of making the marine protected areas that we have at the rows and minkes.

They've um, the, the tow video works, so that's when you you pull a camera behind a boat and you can see in real time what's what's happening and you get an idea of of what the sea bed's made of. And it's mapping those, well, originally it's been about mapping the really sensitive habitats so we can inform management of where we need protection for those. But now we need to understand all of the habitats so we can work out. The areas where different species are potentially um spawning, um, where their nursery grounds are, where they're foraging, um, so it's working out all of those, where the habitats are and where those interactions are occurring, so we can better, better manage all of those species. Um, and this is the current habitat map that we have. This has been made by Paul Chambers, um, and it's, it's very broadly grouped. Um, so there's actually about 65 different habitats across Jersey's waters based on, um. The JNCC classification scheme, um, but these are the ones that sort of are easiest to understand in groupings. We've got different types of sediments, we've got meal beds and seagrass beds, so I'll talk about in a second the two of our important habitats that we're signed up to protecting through OSA. And um yeah, we've got all of our intertidal habitats and and rocky habitats too.

And here's some photos of what these, what they look like, sometimes it's quite hard to visualise.

um, but we've got sort of gravelly habitats in the top. Oh, no mouse on there. And then we've got the seagrass habitat which is which is fringed by by the sand, got kelp habitat. Uh, sandmason worms, so they're tube worms that sort of form, um, a structure on the seabed and they help to stabilise the sediments.

They're very important for biodiversity. And then, uh, slippingly pit beds, which we don't like, they're really bad for the environment. They sort of carpet the seabed and then, um, they're an ecological or trophic dead ends, so once they've taken over an area, um, there's not a lot else that can be done about it, and we've got more and more of that appearing since about the 1970s. Um, then we've got the slightly new habitat, um. Which is um Cybella worm reefs where there's sort of bouquets of these these um peacock worms on the seabed and they again are forming that structure which is important for other species to um to to take refuge in or to to lay eggs on.

Um and the last one is, is me. I've got a cat shark on there just for interest, but it's the, the pink stuff underneath the cat shark. um. And I've got some videos in a minute to try and.

Best back in.

Um, so sea grass is very important because it's, um, it's very important for carbon sequestration, so it's a blue carbon habitat, um, and in the, the climate crisis we're having, this is one of the, the key habitats that's being focused on in the marine environment. Um, there's lots of seeding programmes elsewhere, um, but here our seagrass is expanding naturally and we're not really sure why, um, but it's, it's great that we, um. It's great that we don't really have to do much more to to improve that side of our environment, but it's also really important for biodiversity again, um, like the, the worms I just talked about, it stabilises the sediment, but this time because it has roots, um, and we have lots of juvenile fish that will, that will take refuge in here, particularly juvenile bream, which is a commercial species, so you get that, that whole um cycle.

And then Merle. Um, is the pink stuff on the floor, so it's a coraline red algae, and um it.

It's sort of, again, it it it doesn't stabilise the sediments, but it forms a structure above the sediments that lots of other species will live in, and this is really important for scallop.

Um, so it's also targeted commercially by scallop dredges because there are lots of scallops there, but then this habitat is um quite intolerant of dredging. So this is one of the habitats that was mapped originally to try and um determine where some of those marine protected areas were going to go to to protect the um the core areas of this habitat. And just have a couple of videos of what Mel and seagrass look like. This is the tow video that we use um to map different areas of seabed.

And then the second one is seagrass. So it's not the er it's not the easiest bit of kit to use, especially if you've got a bit of swell on the surface.

um, and you're trying to put it along and look at the screen at the same time when everything's moving in different ways. So it's it's definitely a seasickness inducing. Um, and then once we establish where those habitats are, we put be videos down and then get an idea of the, the mobile species that are living there.

Um, and we've done this both inside and outside the marine protected areas on the same habitats to look at the differences. And you do get a higher, a higher diversity inside the marine protected areas by about 1 or 2 species. Um, and you can see there on the, the sea grass it's mostly juveniles, whereas on the mall you've got a lot more of the adults.

Um, I'm certainly, I think I'm gonna run out of time to to go through with it.

I've got 5 minutes, OK. Um, I've gone slightly overboard on the the number of these so I'll I'll skip to the end after this one. but yeah, as I said before, we're a signatory to Osar, so that commits us to protecting our, our seagrass and our mouth, um, but also habitats such as kelp and ross worm. Ross I haven't got any photos of cos we don't have any proof of its existence currently we, we know we had it back in the 60s, the north coast, um but um we're not sure if it's still there. We need to do some more research to, to work out whether there's any areas that could be um. That could be protected for that habitat type and that again is very important for creating structure on the seabed.

Um, but we're also signatory to to several other um conventions that commit us to protecting our marine environment. Um, and these are the sort of frameworks, they help us to um shape our policies to protect the marine environment. Um, Yes.

And part of the reason why it's difficult here is because we have an area of shared waters with France. Um, most of you will probably be aware, it's been in the news a lot, um, since Brexit. The Bay of Granville Agreement is now void, and we now have the TCA Trade and Cooperation Agreement. Um, but the, the key point here is when it's internationally shared waters, marine protected areas can be a really nice solution to protect the marine environment because the regulations and the fishing, um, the, the. The fishing management on either side will be different and the the amount that each species has been targeted will be different on each side. Um, it's quite hard to come up with a regulation that would work on both sides other than just a blanket protection from one gear across across the seabed. And those are our protected areas that we have currently. Um, so we've got the ones around the island and then outside of our exclusive fishing zone, we've got the pink, the red one at the top, which is the equer hose, and the, the south one which is the minkes, and they're, they're protected from mobile gear. Um, and there's also, there's the no take zone now as well, but it's, it would be very small in the corner and portlet. And it's just important to know that actually a lot of them room protected areas in the UK don't follow the same level of protection that ours do, so they're very much feature based.

So this whole room could be a room protected area. Um, but actually only this, this, um, laptop area is protected from mobile gear because this is where the sea grass is and this is the feature that's important. But everywhere else is sand, so it's, it's fair game, but actually. There's a lot of research to show that you need connectivity between those different habitats to support different life stages, which is what I was gonna talk about, but I will. Go to the end So, um, This would have shown that, so these are our main habitats that we have and then looking at the value that each fishery species, which is on the side, um, so the amount that we get per wet weight value of each of those species, um, if you look at their life stage of their life histories and which habitats they're using at different stages, actually they're using quite a lot of habitats and if you assigned all of that value to the habitats.

You would find that sedimentary habitats are our most valuable one because all 5 of the fishery species are using them at some point in their life cycle.

Only about 3% of our sedimentary habitats are protected currently. So that's, um, in terms of taking a more holistic approach, we need to sort, we need to consider our our maybe less biodiverse habitats, um, if they are supporting species at different stages, um. But of course me and seagrass are very good for for other things for biodiversity and for um for even for tourism, they attract divers, so it's there's there's lots of services and lots of benefits that we get from all these different habitats that will need to be considered.

Um, so that's where future research comes in. Um, so again with the saus your toe, there's lots of monitoring going on in the no take zone, but, um, at work we're trying to, um, understand more about the life cycles of different species. We've been looking at ring nesting sites, um, seeing where they, um, what habitats they're using. Um, there's animal welfare as well that needs considering, which is, um, being pushed through with the saussu, um, so that's something through um. Um, through use of species for, um, educational events, but also for, um, out, out at sea, how should these species be being handled before they make it, um, make it to your dinner plate.

Um, and then blue carbon is also a really big one that's coming forward, and we've got lots of, lots of research going on around that at the moment. And yeah, I will. Leave it there.

I was gonna mention the Maroon's fatial plan, but I don't know whether you. Yes, you've got a few minutes you got a few minutes.

So, um, this is where, um, so the Sosutas information will feed into this a lot on the marine side. um, but so this will be like the island plan for, for the sea basically. So going forward, how will we be managing it, um, so it, it will be a recommendation document, so. Um, how is it being used currently? What do islanders value in the marine environment, and, um, where are the where are the conflicts? So spatially, how is it being used and are there any activities that are negatively impacting on each other and how should we manage that going forward? And this is going to be very, very much stakeholder and community owned, so we'd like as many comments from everyone. We've done a few stakeholder workshops, but there will be a public consultation in September, hopefully, um, and we're still, we're working on the the first phase of this at the moment. Which, uh, yeah, it's gonna be, it's an exciting part of work, piece of work to be involved in and um yeah, we welcome any comments on it. And um if anyone has wants to know more about that, they can come find me at the end. I've got uh a website and an email that I can direct you to. Thank you very much.