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The Irish Sea Pilot: Report on the identification of nationally important marine features in the Irish Sea 2004

Abstract

This report outlines work on developing and testing criteria for the identification of nationally important marine features, carried out under Defra's Review of Marine Nature Conservation.

Draft criteria for the identification of nationally important marine features were developed, covering features for which the UK has special responsibility, features which are rare, and features which are declining or threatened. Their application and the process for identifying nationally important features were tested within the framework of the Irish Sea Pilot.

Criteria were tested by selecting a set of 25 "test" features from a shortlist proposed as meriting consideration for "nationally important" status, and applying the criteria to them by compiling readily available information on each test feature in a series of 25 dossiers. The test features were selected to cover all levels of feature (species, habitats and marine landscapes), and species were selected to cover a broad range of taxonomic groups and life forms. The result of this work was that 18 of the 25 test features qualify as nationally important features, one feature was borderline, one feature met none of the criteria, and there was insufficient information to reach a conclusion on a further four. The features which qualified should be included on a list of nationally important marine features. Sixteen of the dossiers were compiled by L.M. Lieberknecht (JNCC), and a further nine were compiled by MarLIN/MBA under contract for JNCC. The dossiers were compiled from readily accessible information available at the time and may not be comprehensive. The dossiers can be downloaded below.

Resource type Publication

Topic category Oceans

Reference date 2004·03·01

Citation
Lieberknecht, L.M., Vincent, M.A. & Connor, D. 2004. The Irish Sea Pilot: Report on the identification of nationally important marine features in the Irish Sea. JNCC Report No. 348, JNCC, Peterborough, ISSN 0963-8091.

Lineage
The purpose of the Irish Sea Pilot was to help develop a strategy for marine nature conservation that could be applied to all UK waters and, with international collaboration, the adjacent waters of the North-East Atlantic.

Responsible organisation
Communications, JNCC publisher

Limitations on public access No limitations

Use constraints Available under the Open Government Licence 3.0

Metadata date 2020·07·24

Metadata point of contact
Communications, JNCC

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