What is marine planning? We see it as a fantastic opportunity to get surf and water sports areas recognised, designated and protected for generations to come.

Marine planning in its simplest form will be a marine version of our land based planning systems. Sounds obvious don’t it. But it might surprise you to learn the marine environment is nautical miles behind the land based planning systems. But the good news is, SAS is involved from the very start. The newly formed Marine Management Organisation (MMO) is responsible for developing marine plans for the entire UK waters. The MMO tells us marine planning will aim to adopt an integrated and strategic approach to managing the use of the sea in the most sustainable way.

From April 2011 the MMO will run a two year stakeholder engagement programme. The MMO define a stakeholder a “people, individuals and businesses with an interest in the marine area”. Assuming you’ve read this far, I think you’ll probably be a stakeholder, if not for these zones, then future ones. Stakeholders will be required to share their knowledge of site of special surfing interest and who’s using the marine environment and for what.

SAS need you, our troops on the ground to relay vital information on your Sites of Special Surfing Interest (SSSI’s) across the UK, enabling SAS to represent the interests of all coastal users during the marine planning process. We need you to be involved throughout the process and we will highlight important opportunities to engage and guide you towards the most convenient method of engagement.