Kat Sanders is the Marine Awareness and Research Officer at the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust

The presentation will aim to include:

- current threats facing the global marine environment
- examples of different species from different areas (eg sedentary coral reefs in Caribbean & pelagic blue fin tuna in Indian Ocean
- examples of current research & project work to study the effects of these threats
- The Wildlife Trust's vision for the future of the UK marine environment
- The Marine Bill: how will it help us deliver sustainable management fro UK seas and designate Marine Protected Areas for recovery and protection of our habitats and species?

REPORT:

Last chance to sea?
Kat Sanders, Marine Awareness and Research Officer, Yorkshire Wildlife Trust Joint Lecture with the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust

Kat Sanders focused on the state of marine life in the world's oceans and the delicate balances to be maintained if marine nature is to survive – particularly in this time of climate change. Pollution from untreated sewage and dumped waste, especially plastic debris, is finding its way up the marine food chain into the larger mammals in already dangerous concentrations. Overfishing of common fish stocks (52% of all fish species are already fully exploited) threatens the remaining fertile habitats and the availability of future food from the sea. The folly of killing a hundred million sharks every year for shark fin soup and the indiscriminate overfishing of dying coral reefs, emphasize the seriousness of the challenges ahead.
The talk ended with an upbeat report on a number of marine conservation projects on the hitherto neglected Yorkshire Coast which are now being funded by a variety of bodies – including the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust.

Report by Stephen Lusty.

This lecture is the Micheal Clegg Memorial Lecture and is organised in collaboration with The Yorkshire Wildlife Trust