What is this I hear you ask? Despite its long winded title, it’s simply a long awaited extension of protected areas around existing seabird colonies in Wales. You might hear people refer to them as SPA extensions.
These colonies are the areas where our seabirds rest, forage and undertake mating rituals. There are a number of species that will benefit from extending the protected areas , including Razorbills, Manx shearwaters, Storm petrels and Puffins.
The case of Manx shearwater provides us with a good example of how the extensions will make a difference. Prior to dusk during the breeding season, adult shearwaters assemble in flocks or ‘rafts’ on the sea surface up to 10 km from the colony shore. These rafts can consist of several thousand Manx Shearwaters!
When darkness falls, these ‘rafting’ birds fly to their burrows to feed their chicks regurgitating partly digested fish .It is this rafting area that the extension is proposed to cover.
This short video explains it really well;
But why are these areas important? And what does it mean for our seabirds?
As I am sure you know, across the UK our seabirds are in trouble. Across Scotland and the North East coast we are seeing year on year declines, contributable to a wide range of factors including the impacts of climate change. In Wales our seabirds are more fortunate, and whilst we have not yet seen the declines experienced elsewhere in the UK – our colonies are still recovering to historic levels. Put simply, were doing better, but the numbers are still low.
These extensions are something the RSPB and everyone who signed our seabird pledge have been waiting on for a number of years. When designated it will mean that we are no longer just protecting nest sites, but also the surrounding area. This helps add resilience to our seabird populations, meaning they have a fighting chance to survive and hopefully recover in the long term. The map below shows the areas proposed for extensions.
Special Protection Areas are not the only measure needed to protect our seabirds – we still need to protect areas where they actively feed at sea, and areas where large numbers aggregate, either in winter or year round. The extensions are the first step towards achieving a holistic network of sites for our seabirds, and we hope that it represents an ambition within the Welsh Government to ensure we do all we can to protect our seabirds in the long term.
The Natural Resources Wales consultation information states “It is also worth noting that activities that don’t have a detrimental effect on the bird populations of the SPAs are likely to continue as they do now, so you will still be able to walk on the beach, fly a kite, scuba dive and so on. There is no indication that current commercial or recreational fishing or boating poses a threat to the bird populations, so these proposals do not make new regulations or restrictions any more likely. The presence of Special Protected Areas (SPAs) does not automatically prohibit development and change – but there is a process to follow for any regulated activity to consider how proposals will affect an SPA.”