ENVIRONMENTAL groups have claimed that the Welsh Government is “unfairly loading” a controversial consultation into extending scallop dredging in the protected waters of Cardigan Bay.

Whale and Dolphin Conservation, Marine Conservation Society and ClientEarth launched a joint complaint this week against the Welsh Government “questioning the integrity” of the consultation on proposals to open up the Special Area of Conservation (SAC).

The groups are calling on the Welsh Government to withdraw the consultation, claiming the “damaging” proposals “could be illegal”.

The groups, in a joint statement said they are “worried that the consultation is unfairly weighted towards scallop dredging in the protected site” and asks “leading questions”, “making it hard to object to the whole concept of establishing a scallop fishery”.

Mick Green, of Whale and Dolphin Conservation, said: “Scallop dredging destroys almost everything and smashes the seabed life forms to pieces and quickly reduces a rich ecosystem to a sandy or muddy desert. Many of the bare sea floors covered in loose sediments, that we have come to see as natural, are artefacts created by various forms of trawling.

“The Welsh Government should have ambition in their conservation sites to restore such damaged habitats and not allow repeated ongoing damage.”

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