Ireland's State of the Environment Report 2024

224 Chapter 9: The Marine Environment Figure 9.6  Status of Ireland’s marine habitats ˜ Favourable status ˜ Unfavourable-inadequate status ˜ Unfavourable-bad status 12 8 3 Source: NPWS, 2019 The draft 2024 MSFD update represents a much more comprehensive and internationally integrated assessment than earlier assessments, with many more species assessed under this descriptor. GES is being achieved for a few species in our marine waters, but the status remains unknown for many vertebrate species, including reptiles. For fish biodiversity, GES is also not being achieved in the Irish maritime area for any of the four species groups included in the assessment (coastal fish, deep-sea fish, demersal fish and pelagic fish). Regional assessments have now been carried out for ten mammal species (up from two small-toothed cetacean and two seal species assessed nationally in 2020). Among the mammals, GES continues to be achieved for one species (i.e. grey seal), but GES is not being achieved for two small cetacean species (i.e. harbour porpoise and common dolphin), both of which are subject to incidental by-catch, which is assessed through a coordinated regional approach. In September 2023, Ireland signed the United Nations Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction Agreement (UN, 2023), also known as the High Seas Treaty, to promote the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity in areas beyond national jurisdictions. Further information on wider biodiversity issues and the policy and legislation covering this area is found in Chapter 7. 2 www.gov.ie/en/publication/e5057-notice-of-intention-to-designate-porcupine-shelf-002267-and-southern-canyons-002278-as- special-areas-of-conservation (accessed 10 June 2024). Marine protected areas The use of spatial conservation measures to protect the marine environment and its natural integrity and ecosystems is a key measure called for in the MSFD and the Nature Directives (Habitats Directive and Birds Directive) and under the UN Convention on Biological Diversity. In this regard, delivering Ireland’s ambition for its marine protected areas (MPAs) is a key action to help meet our commitment to protect 30% of our marine areas by 2030 (DHLGH, 2023a). While the proportion of our waters currently designated as protected marine sites has increased from 2.3% to over 9%, this is still a long way from meeting that commitment. It is important that marine developments do not occur at the expense of the wider marine environment, and the delayed MPAs legislation is essential in this regard. As part of a process to identify, designate and manage Ireland’s network of MPAs, the government approved the General Scheme of the Marine Protected Areas Bill in December 2022. The legislation is now being drafted. It is anticipated that the Bill will be brought to government for approval to publish in 2024. The forthcoming legislation includes provision for an Ocean Environment Policy Statement to be adopted by government and revised at least every 6 years. This will set out the national vision for the protection of the marine environment and for priorities for the designation of MPAs. The area of marine waters and seabed protected by means of designations under the EU Nature Directives has increased from 2%, as reported in the 2020 State of the Environment Report (EPA, 2020), to almost 10%. Ireland designated two new special areas of conservation (SACs) for the protection of reef habitats 2 in 2022. The Porcupine Shelf SAC has an area of 14,795 km 2 and the Southern Canyons SAC covers 14,434 km 2 . Of the 27,000 Natura sites across the EU, the new SACs are the fourth and fifth largest. Two further Special Protection Areas (SPAs) were also recently designated. (Topic Box 9.2). The level of protection is unclear, as the management measures are yet to be put in place for all areas. The EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 calls for at least 10% of each Member State’s marine environment to be strictly protected; however, this commitment has yet to be included in any EU or national legislation.