A UNIQUE Dorset reef - which has been compared to the rainforests - is under threat as the scalloping season starts again.

The nationally important Lyme Bay reefs, along part of the World Heritage Jurassic Coast which stretches to Purbeck, are home to protected pink seafans and the extremely rare sunset coral.

Wildlife Trusts are campaigning to save the reefs and Dorset's trust has again carried out a count of hundreds of dead fan-coral fragments washed up on a short stretch of shore at Wyke Regis.

It was organised by marine biologist Steve Trewhella, who said: "It is a scandal that scallop dredging is allowed to continue in an area so rich in rare and protected species."

Dorset Wildlife Trust has written to all of its 25,000 members calling on them to write to their MPs in protest.

The start of the Devon scalloping season coincides with a five-week Defra consultation to decide the future of the vulnerable marine habitats and wildlife.

A new report by Devon Wildlife Trust is calling for the full 60sq mile area of reefs - less than 10 per cent of Lyme Bay - to be protected from dredging.

The report covers 16 years of work and concludes that the threat from scallop dredging would lead to wholesale destruction of the seabed and that a total ban is the only effective way to protect it.

Three miles offshore, the reefs are home to around 300 recorded species of plants and animals including sponges, starfish and coral, crabs, lobster and scallops.

The trusts are campaigning for statutory protection of the 60 square miles of reefs. A voluntary agreement with local fishermen broke down last year and now a 12sq mile voluntary exclusion zone is all that exists.

"The reefs are the undersea equivalent of the rainforests and the report demonstrates that closure of Lyme Bay Reefs to dredging is essential if we are to stop their destruction," said Paul Gompertz, Devon Wildlife Trust's director.