At least 90 marine parks are to be created in the seas around Britain to protect fish and wildlife as part of new laws unveiled yesterday.

The zones were announced by ministers as part of their plans to save the diversity of marine life from destruction by human activity and global warming. The Marine Bill is also intended to open up development of the seabed.

Offshore wind farms and the infant wave and tidal power-generation industries are expected to be the main beneficiaries of the simplified process, which will result in one licencing procedure replacing the current three.

David Miliband, the Environment Secretary, said at the launch of the Marine Bill White Paper that protecting marine life and using the sea’s natural resources sustainably was the Government’s “second biggest challenge after climate change”.

Conservation groups gave the long-awaited White Paper a warm welcome, saying that it contained many essential proposals, and urged the Government to ensure that the Bill was contained in the next Queen’s Speech.

Paul King, of the WWF, said: “There is a lot in the Marine Bill White Paper that we are excited about. It is a vital tool for restoring our seas to good health.”

There were concerns among some groups, including Greenpeace, that the measures would not be rigorous enough.

Bill Wiggin, the Tory fisheries spokesman, described the White Paper as “a step in the right direction” but was disappointed that a Bill had yet to be published.

An estimated 44,000 plant and animal species live in the waters around Britain’s coastline, about half the country’s entire biodiversity.

The marine parks, or marine conservation zones, will have varying degrees of protection, including total bans on human intrusion except to sail through the areas.

Among the creatures likely to be included in the parks are cod in the North Sea, where numbers have crashed, the critically endangered common skate and the endangered fan shell. Others include flat oysters, harbour porpoises, basking sharks, goosefoot starfish, soft and cold water corals, long and short-snouted seahorses and sea lampreys.

Ninety or more zones are planned in the first ten years and a further 100 are expected to be added later. Initially the zones will be in the 12-mile (19km) national limit but ministers hope to extend them to a 200-mile limit once agreements have been reached with the European Union. Each zone could be banded to allow different degrees of intrusion, with a no-take zone in the centre, similar to that already in place at Lundy island off the Cornish coast. Marine parks are designed in part to help sea life to adapt to climate change but a healthy marine environment is also seen as having a role in fighting climate change because it absorbs large quantities of carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gas.

Ben Bradshaw, the Marine and Fisheries Minister, said that the proposals were designed to strike a balance between the needs of economic development and wildlife. Fisheries management will be strengthened with the creation of the Marine and Fisheries Agency, through the merger in July this year of the Dep[artment for Environment’s Marine Consents and Environment Unit with the Marine Fisheries Agency.

Water world

Boost for renewables: initiative announced this week by E.On to construct tidal stream power generators, below, off the West Coast

Boost for biodiversity: 90-95 conservation zones created. Among the species likely to benefit: basking shark, above, cod and fan shell

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