Seaplane operations on the Medway Estuary

[Kevin Thornton]

A worrying development up here.

Peel Ports, the Port Authority for the Medway and Swale, have now confirmed two operational areas for seaplanes in the Medway Estuary; one in Half Acre, one in Stangate Creek.

At this time of year, in, among and over the breeding colonies, including schedule one rbbp-listed species, and later, important feeding/roosting areas for transient waders in the spring/autumn then wintering wildfowl and waders.

The long and the short of it. Having referred matters to their own lawyers, as Peel Ports only administer the public waters here, they cannot stop anything that is legal. And they have stated to me Civil Aviation law comes higher than some of the legal protections we like to look to.

In a nutshell, anything can fly over the estuary providing above 500 feet (why the Hoo microlights could always be reported for low flying over the estuary).

A seaplane can land on whatever public waters it likes, whenever.

And to make any such number of landings/takes off, a seaplane can legally drop below the 500 ft mark over water or land.

So the operational areas agreed don’t limit the seaplane to airspace above the areas mapped out, just the waters; they can still fly wherever they like.

Having an extensive island complex, the Medway estuary is perfect for a seaplane wanting to practice shallow depth landing/take-offs. Peel Ports have at least only offered the operational areas for personal flights- presumably if commercial they’d be looking at financial implications, and point to there being only a small number of seaplanes in the UK. I was informed the owner only wishes to take friends out on the river, and that they felt the seaplane made no more noise than a jet-ski or a personal hovercraft...

Clearly the legal issue is beyond mere mortals; do things such as the Habitats Directive have precedent? These things are apparently being looked into, by bodies you would hope would take an interest. The problem is that this would still only ‘delay’, tests would be needed and such operations could still go ahead if not felt the craft have any adverse effect on the populations. Again, experts would be consulted, who could give a considered opinion.

Evidence is needed. If anyone happens to see any seaplane disturbance of birds in the coming months, could they please try to gain further photographic evidence- birds taking to the air, plane in shot, recognisable background, that sort of thing.

Rather than drag this post out here, there are five lengthier posts on my blog, four about the original proposals, and short one mapping the areas eventually implemented.

Thanks in advance for any evidence that can be gathered if you happen to bump into such things. Do feel free to pass this request onto anyone else you might be in a position to gather such evidence (e.g. I know comments were made last year on the county's sightings dbase). I hope to confirm which is the best ‘official’ recipient for such info v. shortly, but wanted to get the message out as the seaplane has been out and about this week.

Kind regards,
Kevin

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For anyone with nothing better to do with several hours, links for the blogposts in question (with links to Peel Ports papers) are as follows:

http://birdingsouthernmedway.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/boris-waters.html http://birdingsouthernmedway.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/the-letter-of-law-boris-waters-part-2.html http://birdingsouthernmedway.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/hub-airspace-movements-boris-waters.html http://birdingsouthernmedway.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/whats-f-u-in-ham-ooze-boris-waters-part.html http://birdingsouthernmedway.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/the-thin-end-of-floats.html)