EPA - Ireland's Environment, An Integrated Assessment - 2020

Chapter 8: The Marine Environment Chapter Highlights for Marine Environment Ireland’s marine waters are clean and reasonably healthy but not as biologically diverse and productive as they could be. They are affected by several human-induced pressures, including fishing, climate change and marine litter such as plastics. The area covered by Marine Protected Areas needs to be expanded significantly to meet the international requirement to conserve 10 per cent of all coastal and marine areas, rising to 30 per cent in future targets under the EU Biodiversity Strategy 2030. The expansion will promote the remediation of environmental damage and the protection of marine ecosystems and biodiversity. As an island nation with an extensive marine area, Ireland needs to ensure that robust governance and legal frameworks are in place to protect marine ecosystems and the services they provide to society. There needs to be governance systems in place that coordinate and integrate the implementation of directives where there are crossovers, such as those covering marine strategy, marine spatial planning, water quality, waste, biodiversity and protecting fish stocks. 219