With apologies, if I can just quote the words of John F. Kennedy:

'all of us have, in our veins the exact same percentage of salt...that exists in the ocean...we have salt in our blood, in our sweat, in our tears. We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea...we are going back...whence we came.'

Not only are those words quoted here today in this Chamber, but actually 10 years ago, with Hilary Benn, my boss at the time, as we introduced the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009 in Westminster. A few months later, in October, I was introducing the final stages of the 320-clause Bill and, on 12 November 2009, 10 years ago to this day, we introduced the legislation that underpins now what the Minister is proudly and rightly bringing forward in terms of Welsh planning in our marine environment. It is a landmark moment, I have to say. And I welcome this and the scrutiny of the committee as well. 

Could I ask just a few questions? First of all, what is the Minister's view on the ongoing campaign by the Marine Conservation Society and others for highly protected marine conservation areas, as a sort of gold standard zone? It's being explored currently in England and Northern Ireland. Is the Minister open to looking at this and at whether there's any potential within Welsh waters for those gold standard zones, or not? How does this plan today contribute to the reality around the whole of the UK, to this ecologically coherent network of marine conservation areas, especially in light of accelerating warming of the oceans, when species migrate but also even habitats can have soft and fluid edges? Could she reiterate, put on record again, that decisions going forward, particularly on implementation, balancing the economic and social activities and conservation, will always—always—be based on the most sound evidence, including the very best environmental baseline analysis?

And, in respect of fossil fuels—and I welcome the clarity given here very much in this statement here—can I ask what are those powers that Welsh Government has at its disposal to reject fossil fuel extraction in these precious waters, but not least in the offshore waters? Powers over, for example, onshore and near-shore facilities used to support and service extraction—we could use those— powers to influence the Westminster Government in line with the overarching Marine and Coastal Access Act, which has duties upon the four Governments and administrations of the UK to talk together and plan together properly. What is the Irish Government's position on fossil fuels, and can we work with them? What does the marine Act enable Welsh Government to do in having a say in these offshore waters? And, at this present moment in time, what's the EU's position in terms of the extraction of fossil fuels there?

And, finally, noting the establishment of the marine planning decision makers group, which I really welcome, to take forward implementation, can I ask how the Minister will ensure that all stakeholders are fully involved in the implementation, including, yes, fisheries, renewable energy, transport, ports and all those other stakeholders, but also expert environmental and ecological organisations, because they also have to be an integral part of the way forward?

But this is a landmark day. I welcome the statement, and now it's getting on with it and balancing, as it was originally 10 years ago, those interests on the living seas that we have around our shores.