A suggestion by a conservation group to form a coalition to fight Government plans for regulating a popular South Coast anchorage have been dismissed by another interested body.

The move follows Yachting Monthly’s publication yesterday of the Sea Horse Trust’s olive branch over Dorset’s Studland Bay.

Nick Warner, chairman of the Studland Bay Preservation Association contacted YM to say:

‘There already exists a more than adequate system for deciding on where MCZs should be located and for implementing any conservation objectives which are deemed necessary.

‘It is unnecessary to have another series of meetings which probably would not decide anything and certainly would have no means of implementing them if they did.

‘The other main point is that Studland Bay doesn’t need managing. The eelgrass beds are healthy and expanding and the few visiting seahorses which visit each summer have about 350 acres of eelgrass to choose from for their stay of two to three months.

‘Studland as well as being an important international anchorage is also a huge recreational playground for thousands of people each year and the socio-economic factors far outweigh any small conservation gains from making it an MCZ. Costly bureaucratic management systems have to be paid for and I can’t see the funding ever becoming available.

‘The idea of eco moorings for visiting yachts would lead to the commercialisation of Studland Bay which is not what we want. The residents are pleased that legislation will stop bottom drag net trawling which was the subject of the survey carried out a few years ago in Studland.’