Why this site?
There is a need to establish a coherent, connected network of MPAs, robust to climate change, at local, regional and basin scale so that plans at one scale are still relevant at a smaller or larger scale. There are ambitious plans to develop ORE infrastructures off the Irish Coast, and the impacts these structures will have on marine biodiversity and how it will affect the marine ecosystem and current activities in the area is not understood.
Ireland’s marine territory extends over 880,000km2, which is ten times the size of the island of Ireland. This area extends out to the edge of the continental margin beyond 200 nautical miles from the coastal baseline to the west of Ireland. Ireland’s marine territory encompasses a wide variety of marine habitats and while the island of Ireland rests on the shallow water plateau of the Continental Shelf, this drops away dramatically with deep troughs being included in the waters around Ireland. As such the waters around Ireland are home to diverse habitats, including deep offshore continental shelves and canyons in addition to a range of inshore coastal habitats including sandy and rocky seashores, kelp forests and salt-marshes. The Celtic Sea to the south of Ireland is a biodiversity hotspot and includes important areas for endangered species on the IUCN red list, in particular elasmobranchs. This area supports a number of human activities including fishing, aquaculture, shipping, tourism and recreation and has huge potential for the Blue Economy, in particular Offshore Renewable Energy infrastructure.
There is a need to establish a coherent, connected network of MPAs, robust to climate change and in a way that plans can be relevant to local, regional and basin scale., at local, regional and basin scale so that plans at one scale are still relevant at a smaller or larger scale. ORE infrastructures are to be developed off the Irish Coast but the impacts these structures will have on marine biodiversity and how they will affect the marine ecosystem and the current activities in the area are not well understood.
