Site selection process
The challenge of the marine environment
Identifying important sites for birds in the marine environment
is challenging. It is difficult to collect good quality information
on the ecology of birds at sea, due to the logistical and financial
implications of collecting data within the vast extent of UK
waters.
Marine bird distributions often show strong
associations with habitat features, such as the distribution of
their prey, other birds and/or marine mammals, as well as physical
and/or biological processes and features. Habitat boundaries are
often not visible, may be much more dynamic, both spatially and
temporally, than those on land, and may extend across small to very
large scales.
Consequently, it can be extremely difficult to
define discrete sites, to estimate bird numbers within them, and
thereby assess their relative or absolute importance to bird
populations. JNCC is working with the country conservation agencies
to find the best approaches for overcoming these issues and to
ensure that common standards are adopted throughout the UK.
SPA site selection
guidelines
Guidelines for the
establishment of SPAs in the marine environment have been kept
consistent with the established guidelines for the terrestrial
environment, which were formulated with the overall aim of
achieving ecological coherence of the SPA and wider Natura networks
as a whole.
The UK SPA
site selection guidelines follow a two stage process based on
population thresholds and ecological judgements. In accordance with
the Birds Directive, JNCC’s advice on the selection of marine SPAs
is founded upon ornithological criteria only - socioeconomic,
management, or political considerations are not applied.
Further reading:
Species being considered
A list of 52 marine birds for which
marine SPAs in the UK are being considered has been compiled by
JNCC. These include divers, grebes, several seaduck, and
almost all seabirds (black guillemot is neither listed on Annex I,
nor considered a migratory species in the UK). Sites for these
species are currently being considered within four
main types of marine SPA.
Most of these species are reliant on terrestrial
environments at some stage in their life cycle. As such, their
presence in an SPA (as a qualifying interest feature) alone does
not signify that this site is a marine SPA. Conversely, some
'terrestrial' species are dependent on the marine environment for
part of their lifecycle. For more information, see SPAs with marine
components.
