Marine Survey of Special Protection and Conservation Areas to Commence

A series of surveys of Special Areas of Conservation (SAC) and Special Protection Areas (SPA) will commence around the Irish coast Friday 7th August.

The surveys will be carried out in order to facilitate the Government of Ireland to meet it’s obligation to develop management plans for a number Special Areas of Conservation for habitats and Special Protection Areas for birds.  The management plans will identify a range of conservation objectives which will subsequently be used to inform the conservation status of a particular site. In addition, licensed activities in these sites must be assessed in light of the conservation objectives.

The Department of Agriculture Fisheries and Food have directed that the Marine Institute, in cooperation with the National Parks and Wildlife Service and Bord Iascaigh Mhara, commission a series of surveys of a number of SAC and SPA sites over the next three years. This year’s surveys will be carried out throughout the months of August and September 2009 and the selected sites are identified in the tables below.  The sites have been selected on the basis of licensing needs for both fisheries and aquaculture. The surveys will constitute seabed investigations (grab, core and video sampling) of both inter-tidal and sub-tidal habitats and will likely encompass both licensed and unlicensed seabed areas. It is expected that additional European sites will be surveyed over the next number of years.

The tables below outline the survey activities that will take place over the next two months. For further information on the surveys please contact Francis O’ Beirn at the Marine Institute, phone 091 387 200 or email francis.obeirn@marine.ie 

Table 1. – Survey Locations Group 1

Table 2. – Survey Locations Group 2

Table 3. – Survey Locations Group 3

Table 4. – Survey Locations Group 4

Table 5. – Survey Locations Dundalk