Skip to main content
Demonstration Site

Ireland

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.

Geographical Area

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.

Nested approach ​ 

  • Basin – NE Atlantic​
  • Regional – Irish waters/Celtic Sea​
  • Tralee Bay & Dunmore East​

Ecosystem Characteristics

  • The site is heavily fished especially in shelf waters to continental margin, slopes
  • It is a target for 30×30 MPA​
  • It is also a target for substantial ORE with the Irish government planning to generate 7GW of energy from offshore renewables before 2030
  • There is high Biodiversity as it is found at the biogeographic frontier Boreal/Lusitanian​.

Challenges

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.

What will be Demonstrated

  • How a nested approach to connect marine protection measures across various spatial scales, from basin to regional and local scale can be applied to areas where data and resource availability range from good to poor.
  • Methods on how to conduct public participatory mapping and co-design protection measures, ensuring stakeholder buy-in the management of MPAs.
  • How ecosystem models can be used to understand changes in marine biodiversity under different scenarios, including climate change, MPAs and ORE. This will inform how socio-economic activity, particularly fishing, may change under certain scenarios and can inform marine management plans.

Demo Site Activities

  • Systematic Conservation Planning at three scales​
  • Extensive Stakeholder engagement – CoP especially at the local scales focused on vulnerable elasmobranchs​.
  • Public Participatory Mapping & PPGIS​.
  • Ecosystem modelling for effects of management measures and climate change scenarios. ​