Jersey Marine Parks

Our campaign to protect Jersey’s waters – including a poll to find out the views of local people – has helped persuade the government to create a marine park. These marine protected areas (MPAs) will allow life in the sea to flourish, and the local, low-impact fishing fleet to thrive. 

Jersey boasts an extraordinary marine estate, with the northwest coast having the UK’s greatest seaweed diversity, and the southwest home to some of Northern Europe’s richest and most diverse clam beds, along with unique rocky intertidal and shallow reef habitats. 

In 2023, the government released its first ever Jersey Marine Spatial Plan (JMSP), a set of proposals to increase the protection of Jersey’s waters from 6 per cent to 27 per cent. The proposal was a direct result of a campaign by Blue Marine on the island.  

Blue Marine is applying its Lyme Bay fishery co-management model in Jersey to ensure fishing communities thrive alongside marine conservation. Since 2018, we have supported research on the island’s MPAs and, since 2021, a local team has engaged with the fishing industry, communities, government, and local organizations. Their work informed the JMSP, promoted low-impact seafood and encouraged public engagement through activities like snorkelling. 

Blue Marine has aimed to demonstrate that marine protection can support both marine life recovery and the local fishing community. Protecting Jersey’s seagrass beds, kelp forests, and maerl beds will help absorb blue carbon and support Jersey’s net-zero carbon goals. 

To drive our campaign, Blue Marine commissioned an opinion poll. We asked more than 2,400 islanders their views on Jersey’s increased control over its own waters, and to what degree they were in favour of further protection within its ‘high value’ marine habitats – essential for biodiversity, carbon sequestration and sustaining fisheries.   

The poll found that while nearly 85 per cent of people think it is good that Jersey has more control over its waters since Brexit, almost 75 per cent think the island’s fish stocks are in a worse condition than 50 years ago.    

Although a ban on bottom trawling and dredging is not currently being considered, 91 per cent replied they would be in favour of one.    

Some 86 per cent said they thought that Jersey should introduce higher fisheries management standards, while 85 per cent said a marine park should be set up in 30 per cent of Jersey’s waters, to protect fishing jobs, help tackle climate change and encourage tourism.