West Connemara Proposed Special Area of Conservation

[Robk]

Does anyone live near of fish in a Special Area of Conservation
What effect has this had on local marine based activities? Fishing /crabbing/weed cutting etc
There is a proposal to make part of the west coast of Connemara into an sac and I'm wondering if there is anywhere else where this has happened and the effects.
Thanks

[hugo]

Where exactly is this proposed for? Is it a marine No Take Zone? Link?

[Robk]

From what I been told its and area from Clifden to belmullet
To protect the habitat for the bottlenose dolphin
I was curious to know if these proposed sac areas exist anywhere else and if so how has it impacted the marine activity there over time.
Info on the web is very sketchy

[gfkelly1969]

i was at the meeting in clifden on Friday but all the information leaflets were given out before i got there,it was also hard to get much information from what they were talking about,i did get a few bits,its not a no take zone most of the fishermen that have already got licenses can continue to fish but no new licenses will be granted,dredging and trawling will be stopped,works near the shore will need permission,piers slipways and even draining land near by will need permission,putting out weedkiller within 15km of the shore will be stopped
the area of the Proposed Special Area of Conservation as far as i know is from roundstone to belmullet ,it will be going ahead be cause the only way to stop it is to get a scientific study done and a objection has to be lodged before the 5 of march,who has the time or money to do that
i had a look around the net but its hard to find any information about it,there are a few Special Area of Conservation around Connemara and the rest of Ireland already http://www.npws.ie/protectedsites/speci ... vationsac/

[hugo]

That's a huge area - how are they going to police a weedkiller ban that far inland? It wouldnt surprise me in the slightest if a NTZ gets tacked on further down the line, fair play to you for keeping an eye on it, keep us posted.

[redzerologhlen]

That's a huge area - how are they going to police a weedkiller ban that far inland? It wouldnt surprise me in the slightest if a NTZ gets tacked on further down the line, fair play to you for keeping an eye on it, keep us posted.

I wonder why they are even putting a ban on weedkiller that far inland, I would very much doubt its the root cause of any pollution in that area given that a lot of the land up there wouldnt be accessable by machinery to put out weedkiller's.

[gfkelly1969]

found a photo of the Proposed Special Area of Conservation,its very hard to get much information online about it

sac.jpg

[petemc]

What information are you specifically looking for? There are a number of marine SACs around the coast. I live in Schull Co. Cork the harbour of which is part of the proposed Roaring Water Bay and Islands SAC. Who organised the meeting? The reason I ask is that a lot of the information is wrong - the idea of banning weed killer to protect a marine SAC is just scaremongering. It is illegal to construct anything on the foreshore regardless of where you are in or out of an SAC you need permission. The fact that people build slips and piers all the time without permission is not actually good for the marine environment and is illegal its just like everything else there is zero policing of the law. All the relevant information can be found on the National Parks and WIldlife website. I was involved in the surveying of all the marine SACs in Ireland. The idea is to protect what is there species and areas of high conservation value. If you want to build a huge pier in such an area it makes sense that you can't. If you are interested in fishing the idea of no take zones should actually make you happy though this does not apply to an SAC

[gfkelly1969]

What information are you specifically looking for? There are a number of marine SACs around the coast. I live in Schull Co. Cork the harbour of which is part of the proposed Roaring Water Bay and Islands SAC. Who organised the meeting? The reason I ask is that a lot of the information is wrong - the idea of banning weed killer to protect a marine SAC is just scaremongering. It is illegal to construct anything on the foreshore regardless of where you are in or out of an SAC you need permission. The fact that people build slips and piers all the time without permission is not actually good for the marine environment and is illegal its just like everything else there is zero policing of the law. All the relevant information can be found on the National Parks and WIldlife website. I was involved in the surveying of all the marine SACs in Ireland. The idea is to protect what is there species and areas of high conservation value. If you want to build a huge pier in such an area it makes sense that you can't. If you are interested in fishing the idea of no take zones should actually make you happy though this does not apply to an SAC

i am looking for any information there is but cant seem to find any,if you have a link you can pass on it would be great
its not going to be a no take zone,anyone that has a license already can do certain types of fishing,they are going to stop dredging and trawling
i am not against the sac myself,if it stops the seabed being ripped up it has to be a good thing,i hope the fishing will improve but with the amount of fishing boats fishing outside the Proposed sac at the moment i cant see much improvement for a long time

[petemc]

Hi if you go to this page http://www.npws.ie/protectedsites/speci ... vationsac/ you will see all the proposed SAC s for the whole country both marine and terrestrial. Zoom in on the map and then take a look at the area you are interested in. I think there are a few candidate SAC s in your area. If you then click on a balloon it will take you to another page which summarises why the area is a candidate SAC and also any reports that have been written for the site. These can be downloaded for free.

For example:
Inishbofin and Inishshark SAC 000278
Features of Interest
Coastal lagoons [1150]
Grey seal (Halichoerus grypus) [1364]
Oligotrophic waters containing very few minerals of sandy plains (Littorelletalia uniflorae) [3110]
Northern Atlantic wet heaths with Erica tetralix [4010]
European dry heaths [4030]

Hope yo can find the information you are looking for. Regards.

[joebhoy]

i am not against the sac myself,if it stops the seabed being ripped up it has to be a good thing,i hope the fishing will improve but with the amount of fishing boats fishing outside the Proposed sac at the moment i cant see much improvement for a long time[/quote]

Its a start but will not fix the problem over night. I remember a similar scheme that was rolled out in Lamlash Bay on the Isle of Aran on the West coast of Scotland some years ago. The results were astounding with the sea bed recovering quicker than any of the marine biologists were predicting. Now I'm not saying that this will be a miracle cure but the area proposed in the diagram above is significanly bigger than Lamlash bay.

[donal murphy]

i seen hughs fish fight the other week and they have areas in the isle of man where you cant dredge... they dived the mark and it was full of life, then went to an area where they actively dredge and nothing but sand

they should have places like this all around our coastline, east coast, west coast, south coast and north coast

[joebhoy]

Hey Donal the dredging seems to be the biggest problem as it hammers the sea bed and all that live on it. When I was last home in scotland I was told that they were electorifing the sea bed as they were dredging it! WTF

Has anyone else heard this around our shores?

Joe