The issue of abandoned, or “end of life” vessels is increasingly recognised as a significant challenge in the restoration of saltmarsh. Such vessels directly impede saltmarsh restoration through physical scouring of the seabed, habitat loss, and the leaching of toxic chemicals and microplastics into sensitive ecosystems, as well as making access for active restoration activities extremely difficult.
Our Future Coast site leads are facing a complex legal and policy landscape in their attempts to remove abandoned vessels to reduce environmental pressures and able active
restoration work to begin. Tensions between local communities and vessel owners in some cases increases the complexity. Trade-offs between culture and heritage values of some abandoned vessels, and the environmental impacts of newer fiberglass vessels must also be carefully considered.
Over the summer of 2025, the MMO consulted on changes to fees, exemptions and self-service licences, which included a potential exemption which would permit any person (i.e. not just owners or public bodies) to remove abandoned vessels from the marine environment without a licence. If adopted this will remove a critical bottleneck for saltmarsh restoration, but there is a risk that unregulated removal may lead to the loss of non-designated but significant heritage assets
Our Future Coast is currently conducting a systematic review to identify scalable solutions and recommendations that will enable policy makers and practitioners to successfully navigate their way through this complexity.
By presenting our initial findings, we aim to encourage shared learning and ongoing discourse.
Ness is an independent consultant who has almost 25 years’ experience in the marine sector, with a background in scientific research and integrated marine management. She has an in-depth knowledge of UK and international governance, as well as its practical application through fisheries, marine spatial planning and licensing, natural capital approaches and nature-based solutions, nature restoration and MPA designation and management. Ness is also a trained and highly skilled facilitator and stakeholder participation expert and has designed and led hundreds of in-person and virtual workshops. Ness is a champion of place-based decision making and is Chair of the Dorset Coast Forum and advisor to the UK Protected Area Foundation.
Throughout her career Ness has led cutting-edge projects which have driven UK policy, including the development of the first integrated marine plan in England - a pilot for the MMO which continues to inform marine planning and licensing both in the UK and internationally, VALMER – which pioneered the integration of natural capital approaches and NbS into marine planning and MPA management, and most recently a whole suite of projects which informed UK government marine policy, whilst an Associate Director at Howell Marine Consulting (HMC). The latter included projects to develop a framework for marine net gain in England, an action plan for marine species restoration to help deliver marine net gain, a review and evaluation of the MPA network in England, an extensive review and recommendations for climate adaptive fisheries management, and a review and recommendations on how to achieve more localised/nested marine planning in England.
Ness also has extensive international experience, having delivered a natural capital project for JNCC across four South Atlantic Overseas Territories, led the integrated marine management team at the MMO for the Blue Belt Programme and Blue Planet Fund Ocean Country Partnership Programme, and delivered projects for the World Bank, UNEP, FAO and UNDP.
