Marine Protected Area Management and Monitoring

The MarPAMM project was set up in January 2018 to protect and monitor the marine fauna of the coasts of Ireland, Northern Ireland and Scotland. Species living in these regions, such as seabirds, move along the coast, which is why their protection requires cross-border cooperation between the three regions. The project includes the collection of data on the abundance, distribution and movements of these mobile species. Thanks to this information, existing maps can be updated and effective measures can be taken for the protection of species.

Outputs of the project will be:

• a regional sea bird model;
• a regional model of protected seabed-dwelling species and habitats;
• a seal foraging and underwater noise model; and
• a coastal processes model.

At the end of the project (end of March 2022) six Marine Protected Areas should be developed thanks to the tools and with the help of partner projects such as COMPASS and SeaMonitor.

Marine protected areas concerned:

• Argyll region; 
• Outer Hebrides region; 
• Murlough Special Area of Conservation; 
• Carlingford Lough Special Protection Areas (cross-border); 
• Co Down – Co Lough region (cross-border);
• North Coast Ireland – North Channel region (cross-border).

Project Partners: 

• Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (UK);
• Marine Scotland (UK);
• Scottish Natural Heritage (UK);
• University College Cork (IE);
• Ulster University (UK);
• Scottish Association for Marine Science (UK);
• BirdWatch Ireland (IE).