Defra Minister visits PML

6th August 2007

 

The Rt. Hon. Jonathan Shaw MP, Under Secretary of State for Defra and Minister for the South East, visited PML on Tuesday 31st July. He was accompanied by local MP Linda Gilroy, as well as Defra’s Deputy Directors of the Marine Environment and Fishing Industry Management.

 

The visit to PML was at the request of Defra and formed part of a day in the region. During the visit to PML the Minister and his team were shown some of PML’s cutting edge research and applications. The programme included; an overview of the effects of living in a high CO2 world and how this is changing the chemistry of our oceans; the potential for future sustainable resources from the sea; the work PML carried out on environmental good & services, which was commissioned by Defra to help with the Marine Bill and finally, PML’s role in helping determine the environmental impact of the MSC Napoli incident.

 

Following the informative visit to PML, Mr Shaw held a short television interview in the organisation’s grounds before travelling to the Maritime and Coastguard Salvage Control Unit in Portland, which has been dealing with the recovery of the MSC Napoli.

 

David Robins, Head of Corporate and External Affairs at PML and co-ordinator of the visit commented: “It was an exciting morning and a pleasure to meet the new Minister. We have been working hard to show the relevance of our research to policy and regulatory bodies and so we are very pleased that PML was chosen to be one of the Ministers first marine research centres he has visited. He’s only been the Minister with responsibility for Marine and Fisheries within Defra since the very recent Government reshuffle and it was clear that he is keen to learn more about our research and the issues behind it and we look forward to working with his office in the future.”

 

Linda Gilroy MP remarked: "It is good to know that Plymouth is now registering in such a strong way with DEFRA ministers and I know that Jonathan Shaw's door will be open to us as we move forward with the Plymouth Marine Partnership, seek to influence the Marine Bill - which is to be published in draft in the new year - and press for the new Marine Management Organisation HQ to be located in Plymouth.”