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Completed

Appropriate Assessment of Aquaculture Activities in nine SACs

As identified, the aquaculture industry is an important economic activity on all coasts of Ireland. The inshore aquaculture industry produces a variety of shellfish as well as salmon and trout. A significant proportion of the activity occurs within, or proximate to, Natura 2000 sites which are environmentally designated areas under the EU Habitats and Birds Directives.

Appropriate Assessment Reports and Advisory Services of Aquaculture Activities in Two Special Areas of Conservation (SACs)

The aquaculture industry is an important economic activity on all coasts of Ireland. The inshore aquaculture industry produces a variety of shellfish as well as salmon and trout. A significant proportion of the activity occurs within, or proximate to, Natura 2000 sites which are environmentally designated areas under the EU Habitats and Birds Directives.

Aquaculture and Fisheries Interactions with SCI Bird Species

The capture of spatial data relating to bird use in inshore and offshore environments and interpreting these data as it relates to various anthropogenic activities is important in implementing management actions. Specifically, the capture of data and subsequent analysis will aid in understanding the interactions between bird species of special conservation interest (SCI) in Special Protection Areas (SPAs), and aquaculture and fisheries activities. This is an important requirement to the management and mitigation of these industries in Natura sites and more widely.

Assessment of the Impacts of Hydraulic Dredging on Sedimentary Habitats in the Irish Sea

The razor clam (Ensis siliqua) fishery in the north Irish Sea is distributed in a continuous band of activity from Dundalk Bay in the north to Malahide in the south at depths from 2-15m. Fishing activity has increased significantly since 2013 in response to strong market demand for product. The fishery uses hydraulic dredging to extract razor clams and disturbs sediment to a depth of 25cm.

Assessment of the Species Catch Composition in the Inshore Commercial Static Gear Fleet

Over 90% of active fishing vessels in the inshore fleet use pots and nets to target crustaceans. Non-retained by-catch in these fisheries are significant especially in the static net (tangle net and gill net) metier. Commercial and non-commercial finfish are also captured in pots and some of this may be retained for bait.

Biomaterials Repository

The National Marine Biodiscovery Laboratory in Ireland (NMBLI) at the Marine Institute (Oranmore), aims to strengthen Ireland’s capacity as research leaders in marine biotechnology. This facility aims to develop economic growth and job creation through innovative knowledge-generating activities and collection of baseline data to support sustainable economic growth and job creation through the development of new products and services.

Data Governance for Marine Data

Programmes such as MSP, MSFD and DCF require access to data from a wide range of sources. Access to these data requires appropriate Data Governance to ensure compliance with licensing terms and legislation such as GDPR. Without an adequate level of Data Governance these is a risk that access will be limited with a default low/no-risk approach leading to low-availability.

Data Reuse Services Framework

Currently the availability of data required for programmes such as MSP and MSFD is limited, in part due to technical differences or limitations across organisational boundaries. The deployment of consistent data services interfaces will greatly facilitate access and integration of data held by different groups both within and external to the Marine Institute.

Definition and Classification of Ireland’s Seascapes

Seascape is an important element in any maritime nation’s sense of identity and culture. It relates to where and how people value their coasts. As is evident in national tourism statistics, Irish seascapes are especially valued along the Wild Atlantic Way. This project aimed to broadly define and classify Ireland’s Seascapes. This has improved our understanding of the character and values of the relevant seascapes and provided national baseline information available from which the planning and decision making processes can respond to future changes.

Development of Marine Invasive Species Surveillance Methods to Facilitate Mapping

The aim of this project is to develop surveillance methods to facilitate the mapping of Invasive Alien Species (IAS) distribution in Irish marine habitats.  Galway Mayo Institute of Technology (GMIT) are researching IAS detection methods in Irish nearshore waters and benthic habitats.  They have completed a review of known marine IAS in Ireland and identified IAS that could invade Irish marine habitats through vulnerable invasion pathways and other mechanisms (e.g.

Ecological risk assessment for pressures that vary in time and space

The assessment of ecological risk associated with marine industry activity and development is a key issue in providing advice to licensing authorities and planners in the marine environment. The project would take existing quantitative frameworks for risk assessment and add functions to incorporate effects of applying and withdrawing pressures over short time steps and to enable modelling of population responses to these pressure schedules. Developing these methods will allow us to incorporate them into decision support tools to allow for a more robust comparison between temporally and spatially explicit management measures.

Ecosystem data collection on Irish fisheries surveys in support of MSFD, Natura and Habitat mapping Phase 2

As part of the data collection framework, the Marine Institute conducts ten annual fisheries research surveys at sea to provide fisheries independent data for stock assessment. These surveys can be used as platforms of opportunities for the collection of additional ecosystem data to support the reporting requirements for environmental legislation including MSFD, Natura and MSP.

Evaluation of Biodiversity and habitat mapping in the Biologically Sensitive Area (BSA)

The Biologically Sensitive Area (BSA) is situated off the west and south coasts of Ireland and is considered to encompass an area of high biological sensitivity. It contains important spawning and nursery grounds for exploited north east Atlantic fish species. This project will produce a report which details the biological basis for the BSA and the effectiveness of the designation as an instrument to afford protection to the area.

Extending the Data Management Quality Framework for Marine Data

Programmes such as MSP, MSFD and DCF require access to trusted and well-managed data from a wide variety of sources. The ability to access and re-use these data requires appropriate quality-assured processes and storage systems. This project will extend the Marine Institute’s Data Management Quality Management Framework to additional data processes underpinning marine environmental reporting and management, ensuring that these processes are quality assured via an internationally accredited framework.

Management and Restoration of Endangered Skate Stocks Phase 2

The key importance of Tralee Bay (but also Clew and Galway) for endangered skates (and the skate-like angel shark) is well known and confirmed thanks to the first two years of EMFF work under the Biodiversity Scheme, and following on from Purse Search, IFI, ICES advice and the recent Irish Red List report. The threats to these species in the area are largely due to tangle netting for crawfish. The species in question are the white skate, common skates, undulate ray, common stingray and the angel shark.

Marine Data Analysis and Visualisation Framework

While currently there are valuable data assets residing across multiple Marine Institute teams and partner organisations, our ability to leverage these data to provide information which is current, reproducible, and readily available across multiple locations is limited.

Converting these data into usable information to meet new programme requirements requires improved access to data analysis and visualisation tools, services and techniques.

Marine Data Integration Standards and Guidelines

Currently data required for programmes such as MSP, MSFD and DCF are held by a number of organisations and in a range of formats. The development of data integration best practice for Ireland’s marine data will provide guidance as to how data from multiple sources (including across internal organisational boundaries) can be combined together for analysis and reuse. The publication of these best practices will also facilitate the connection of new nodes to the Institute’s data services platform, furthering the integration and reuse of marine data within Ireland.

Marine Foresight Study

Horizon scanning and foresight activities provide important evidence and data to support strategic decision making. This includes stocktaking of national, EU and international current and future policies, regulations, and initiatives with potential relevance to Ireland’s blue economy. A number of marine foresight initiatives have been carried out at EU and international level, however these need to reviewed in the context of Ireland’s blue economy and the advancement of IMP in Ireland.

Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY) Proxies for Data-Limited Stocks for Key Stone Species and Species Sensitive to the Impacts of Fishing

Many of the stocks which are caught by the Irish commercial fishing fleets are considered to be data-limited or are not assessed at all. These include a number of key stone species (like sprat, gurnards, saithe, pollack, ling) and species sensitive to the impacts of fishing (like rays and skates, john dory, brill and turbot).

Measure the Effectiveness of Mitigation Measures of Managed Activities (Aquaculture) Carried Out in Natura Sites

This project is designed to measure the effectiveness of management or mitigation measures taken as part of aquaculture licencing decisions to reduce or minimise risk to conservation features. Such measures are likely to be of the form of, 1) licence conditions that place certain constraints on activities in certain areas or, 2) redrawing site boundaries.

Measure the effectiveness of mitigation measures of managed activities (aquaculture) carried out in Natura sites – monitoring and baseline data collection.

This project is designed to measure the effectiveness of management or mitigation measures taken as part of aquaculture licencing decisions to reduce or minimise risk to conservation features. Such measures are likely to be of the form of, 1) licence conditions that place certain constraints on activities in certain areas or, 2) redrawing site boundaries. The response of the conservation features to such measures will have to be considered.

MSP Data Governance

The aim of this project is to ensure reliable data storage and management systems. This will provide assurance of the availability and versioning of data. Improved data archiving will support legislative compliance and reduce costs by only retaining data which are required.

MsY proxies for DAta-limited Stocks (MYDAS) for key stone species and species sensitive to the impacts of fishing Phase 2

Many of the stocks which are caught by the Irish commercial fishing fleets are considered to be data-limited or are not assessed at all. These include a number of key stone species (like sprat, gurnards, saithe, pollack, ling) and species sensitive to the impacts of fishing (like rays and skates, john dory, brill and turbot). For these stocks, the fishing mortality is unknown and MSY reference points are not established. This lack of quantifiable targets is an impediment to the implementation of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) as well as the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD).

Nephrops and Microplastics

Several studies have indicated large accumulations of plastic microfibers in the gut of Dublin Bay prawns Nephrops norvegicus and in the sediments in which they live. The complicated gut system in this species is suggested to retain plastic fibers and places these stocks at potentially high risk of interference from marine microplastic pollution. Fibers which are too large or numerous to pass through the gut can form balls of aggregated material over time.

SeaRover (Phase 1) Assessment of Fisheries/Habitat Interaction on Offshore Reefs

As part of the European Habitats Directive (EC 92/43/EEC), Member States need to take measures to avoid deterioration of protected habitats. Ireland is carrying out extensive mapping surveys of offshore reefs to evaluate status and introduce conservation and management measures in proportion to status and pressures from fishing. This study has been identified as high priority by the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht (DCHG) for the marine environment to fulfil Ireland’s obligations under the Habitats Directive.

Socioeconomic Study of Seaweed Harvesting Along the West Coast of Ireland

This project is primarily a desktop study that will rely on existing sources of information and extensive surveying of both harvesters/growers and businesses or organisations within the seaweed sector. Through a comprehensive survey of the key stakeholders, data and information will be collated to map and value the seaweed supply chain, create an industry wide directory, develop best practice recommendations for seaweed resource management and reporting, and prepare the required final report and summary fact sheet and presentation.

UWTV Marine Mammal Observer – a pilot project

This project proposal looks for funding to cover costs of a Marine Mammal Observer (MMO) on an Underwater Television (UWTV) survey of nine days in August 2022. This is the first time an UWTV survey will be conducted on a Research Vessel with enough on-board space to accommodate an MMO in addition to necessary scientific complement. UWTV surveys lend themselves well to MMO operations owing to their standardised operations in defined areas.

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