17 January 2019

Speaking in a debate on the Environmental Audit Committee statement on sustainable seas, Peter Aldous highlights the excellent work of CEFAS (Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science) in identifying the problems and solutions and highlights the potential for the UK to be a global pioneer in the sustainable stewardship of our seas.

I commend the hon. Lady and her Committee for this excellent report. May I also mention the excellent work that is done by the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science, which is based in my constituency to both identify the problems and come up with solutions? Based on its work, the UK can be a global pioneer in the sustainable stewardship of our seas?

I thank the hon. Gentleman, who is a former and much esteemed member of our Committee, for that question. I have seen the CEFAS ship on a visit to his constituency when I was shadowing the DEFRA brief. He is right that we have world-leading marine biologists and marine scientists. The world looks to the UK for our brilliance and thought leadership on the subject. One criticism that we have of Government is that they have stopped funding our long time series around ocean certification measurements. One key recommendation is that we need to measure the acidity of the ocean. We know what it was going back decades, but we need to have more monitoring sites around the UK, so I hope that he will help us in pushing Government on that task.

Hansard