Irish Marine Protected Areas – “It’s putting them into practice like.”

Jack O'Donovan Trá | 6 March, 2025 |

In the words of Captain Mick Sheeran, when asked about his views on Marine Protected Areas (MPAs):

“…I think they’re good in theory, but it’s putting them into practice like. If we have areas here designated under EU law, what’s the point in superimposing another one on top of it? I hope I’m wrong…”

Fair Seas has always stressed the urgency of expanding and properly resourcing Ireland’s Marine Protected Area (MPA) network. Proper resourcing is what Mick Sheeran alluded to during his interview with the Fair Seas team in the short film, Fair Seas: The Kingdom of Kerry. Since this campaign began in 2022, we have been calling for new national MPA legislation to be published, and 72,000 of you joined in this call by signing our petition.This new legislation should fill in the gaps in active management of protected sites and stakeholder engagement.

Ireland’s 30×30 EU commitment

The responsibility of delivering on Ireland’s EU commitment to designate 30% of Ireland’s seas as MPAs by the year 2030 now sits within the term of our new government. Much work under the previous government went into the development of new MPA legislation, so the new government is starting from a very good place, but it’s vital that they get it right.

2030 is only five years away, and the Government still has over 20% of Ireland’s waters to designate as MPAs, including 10% which must come under strict protection.

There are two types of protected areas in Ireland, here’s a little recap.

In the EU, countries are obligated to designate protected areas as part of what is called the Natura 2000 Network. This network is made up of two main kinds of protected areas, Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) and Special Protection Areas (SPAs). These areas must be designated to conserve species or habitats that are listed on the EU’s Habitats Directive and Birds Directive. These protected areas are designed to meet very specific conservation objectives for the limited number of habitats and species that are listed on the directives. However, many key species and habitats, including habitats important for carbon sequestration like kelp forests and seagrass and iconic species like basking sharks, are not included in the directives. The fact that these ecosystems and species are not afforded protection on an EU level is very worrying, given that they are some of the most biodiverse ecosystems and charismatic species in European waters. Thankfully though the basking shark has now been afforded protected status in Ireland under Ireland’s Wildlife Act, yet many key feeding areas and potential breeding grounds are left unprotected.

You may be aware that the Irish Government has now designated over 9% of Ireland’s waters as either SACs or SPAs, a recent increase from as little as 2.1% in 2022 when Fair Seas began campaigning. However, in 2023 the EU Commission took Ireland to court over failing to adopt conservation measures for many of their designated sites.

Another key failing in the Irish Government’s designation of SACs and SPAs is the complete lack of any community engagement prior to designation. This failure was highlighted surrounding the designation of the ‘Seas Off Wexford’ SPA in 2024. Stakeholder engagement is not mandatory prior to designating SACs and SPAs and therefore the government until now have chosen not to do it.

The key to the long-term health and success of Ireland’s MPA network will be using the best scientific data paired with early and ongoing community engagement with all those who use our seas. This is a point we also made in our recent submission to the Government consultation on Páirc Náisiúnta na Mara Ciarraí.

Fair Seas is still calling on the Irish Government to swiftly publish the new MPA legislation, but we also need to see work begin immediately to develop management plans for our existing SACs and SPAs, as well as identifying additional and sustainable funding streams.

Delay after delay has meant that the MPA Bill which was promised for publication in July 2023 is still nowhere to be seen. It is encouraging to see the ‘Expansion of Ireland’s MPA network’ stated in the Programme for Government. The MPA Bill is also once again on the most recently published Legislation for Priority Publication list. The newly appointed government must now take a collaborative interdepartmental approach to working out whatever details have held up this vital new legislation.

Nature Restoration Law

The Nature Restoration Law (NRL) was passed by the EU Commission in June 2024 . This law was first proposed by the European Commission in 2022 to restore 20% of EU land and 20% of EU seas by 2030. The Birds and Habitats Directives came into place around 20 years ago to protect vulnerable ecosystems and species but with over 80% of EU habitats in bad ecological condition, unfortunately, what we’ve been doing so far hasn’t worked. It is now not enough to simply protect areas, we must also put in place measures to restore ecosystems back to their natural state.

Member states must put in place measures to re-establish defined habitat types in areas where they have been lost. This is with the aim to reach their favourable reference area which must take into account records of historical distribution of the habitats and the projected changes which are expected due to the changes in environmental conditions due to climate change.

You can read more about the marine specific targets of NRL in our blog.

MPA Life Project

The recently announced €25 million MPA Life project is “aimed at significantly expanding Ireland’s network of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) to reach a target of 30% coverage of the maritime area by 2030.

Its core goal is to make a major contribution to protecting, conserving and enabling the recovery of Ireland’s marine ecosystems, thereby supporting the achievement of Good Environmental Status in our marine environment.” – www.mpalife.ie/

The government’s MPA Life project seeks to begin an in-depth and lengthy stakeholder engagement process, with the aim of identifying marine features in need of protection and to codesign new plans for MPAs in Irish waters with communities. It is however important to note that €25 million is still only a fraction of the funding needed to properly identify, manage and monitor Ireland’s MPA network.

In a June 2023 report, Fair Seas published an internationally peer reviewed report on sustainably financing Ireland’s MPA network. It was identified that approximately €55 million between 2024 and 2030 is needed to reach Ireland’s targets of protecting 30% of our seas.

Case studies of successful MPAs

While Ireland’s progress on MPAs may be trailing behind many other countries, we can benefit from many good examples, research, case studies and resources to use in our 30×30 journey. For example, this brilliant case study on how a bay in Turkey went from an overfished, plastic-polluted mess to now having ten times the number of fish per square metre and boosting small-scale fishing community income by 400%, all thanks to some well-constructed management plans.

In 2024 the Azores shocked the world by hitting its 30% MPA coverage with 287,000 square kilometres, a whole six years early. The designation comes after detailed scientific surveys and a lengthy stakeholder engagement process. The MPA network focuses on fully protected or highly protected areas, which limit human activity and are proven to have the highest impact for nature recovery and the highest benefits for adjacent fisheries.

Many fisheries stocks in Ireland are depleted or under pressure. Oceana’s 2022 report ‘On The Brink, the most depleted fish stocks in the Northeast Atlantic’ highlights, the list of Northeast Atlantic depleted stocks covering pelagic, demersal, and benthic species such as anchovy, eel, herring, horse mackerel, Norway lobster (Dublin Bay Prawn as we call it), sardine, and whiting, among others. These species have one or more stocks that are considered to be depleted. However, Marine Protected Areas that are co-designed properly with local communities can offer many benefits to fishing communities.

Conclusion

As can be seen from the above, we are now swimming in policies, projects and targets relating to Marine Protected Areas, which is a huge increase since Fair Seas began in 2022, but to end how we began in the words of Mick Sheeran;