Matt Ridley from the UK: Protecting the Sea

Britain may no longer have an empire, but it still rules a heck of a lot of waves. One of the manifesto commitments of the Conservative party in the last election was to create a “blue belt” of marine protected zones around the 14 overseas territories that still belong to this country. It has started fulfilling the promise and is already protecting more of the sea than any other nation.

How best to conserve marine life? No-take zones, where all fishing is banned, are hard to police and generate little income for locals or to support enforcement of the protection. Yet exploitation of the seas risks causing great damage.