Sue Gubbay, a council member who hosts the Countryside Council for Wales, explained how sites would be protected from activities involving extraction and deposition. Other damaging and disturbing activities will also be banned.

BB made two unsuccessful attempts to obtain some examples of recreational activities which might be seen as 'damaging' or 'disturbing'. A commercial fisherman asked Callum Roberts of York University, who presented the background paper for the symposium, for the preferred method of catching fish, again not getting a straight answer.

The most popular model for a selection process seemed to be the one which involved the most consultation with stakeholders. Significantly, the Post It note which generated the most support read 'CCW are not seen as honest brokers', something they need to consider seriously, beginning with independent chairmen.

The first of these reserves is to be in place by 2012. With over half of the Welsh coastline likely to receive designations of varying degrees of severity, the boating public cannot just sit back and hope that all will be well.