English - Caribbean Environment Programme

EXECUTIVE SUMMARYAn important duty of the UK Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009 and the Marine(Scotland) Act 2010 is to create an ecologically coherent network of well managedMarine Protected Areas (MPAs) to deliver nature conservation priorities.In order to create MPAs that feature or include the whales, dolphins and porpoises(cetaceans) in UK waters it will be necessary to identify areas used for important lifeprocesses such as feeding, breeding and raising young – referred to as cetacean criticalhabitat (Section 3). The purpose of this project was to identify areas of cetacean criticalhabitat in UK waters and to assess whether MPAs could be an effective conservation tool.Following a thorough review of cetacean distribution and habitat use (Section 4), and aconsideration of threats (Section 5), an assessment was made as to whether criticalhabitat could be identified for each cetacean species. A scoring system was developed tomake this assessment and the methodology used is outlined in Section 6.Critical habitat was identified for harbour porpoises, bottlenose dolphins, white-beakeddolphins, Risso's dolphins, common minke whales and short-beaked common dolphins(Section 7). For harbour porpoises, white-beaked dolphins, minke whales and shortbeakedcommon dolphins in particular, given the importance of UK waters for thesespecies, it is highly likely that further areas of critical habitat exist.Insufficient data were available to allow the identification of critical habitat for otherspecies. For Atlantic white-sided dolphins, long-finned pilot whales, northern bottlenosewhales, Sowerby's beaked whales, sperm whales and killer whales, UK waters providesignificant and important areas of habitat and within these there are likely to be areas ofcritical habitat. Several 'areas of interest' were identified for these species showing someevidence of importance, and these should be investigated further.It is important to note that information is often patchy and in some areas severely lacking.The results from this project will invariably be biased towards areas where we haveinformation. Areas not identified as 'critical habitat' or 'areas of interest' are not necessarilyunimportant, in most cases there is just less or no information available at present withwhich to make an assessment. This is especially relevant to offshore areas.Following a consideration of threats present in these areas, we recommend that MPAsshould be considered (or have existing protection extended) for four regions of the UK:The Hebrides the Inner Hebrides, The Minches and the Sea of the Hebrides – harbour porpoise north east Isle of Lewis – Risso's dolphins the Inner Hebrides and the Sound of Barra – bottlenose dolphinsOther species present here that could also benefit from protective measures put in placeare common dolphins, white-beaked dolphins, minke whales and killer whales.North east Scotland south coast, Outer Moray Firth – harbour porpoise Inner Moray Firth and north east Scottish coast to St. Andrew's Bay – bottlenose dolphins 1 south coast, Outer Moray Firth – minke whales Aberdeenshire coast – white-beaked dolphins21An EU Habitats Directive Special Area of Conservation (SAC) is already in place for part of this area.