Expansion of ‘Blue Belt’ offers refuge to rare birds
AN AREA of sea off the cost of Anglesey is to be set aside to help protect rare seabirds.
The new marine special protection area (SPA) in the Irish Sea between the Isle of Man and Anglesey is home to the largest known aggregation of Manx shearwaters, which can number up to 12,000 in the area.
It’s part of an expansion of the UK’s so-called marine Blue Belt, which also includes an area of the south-west coast of England.
Most of the world’s population of Manx shearwaters breed on islands off Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, including Skomer, which hosts the world’s biggest colony, and Skokholm.
The adults forage in the Irish Sea and further afield while feeding their young which remain in burrows on the islands.
Nearly 150,000 rare seabirds, including the little tern and blackthroated diver, will benefit from moves to expand the Blue Belt, which already protects 23% of UK waters and more than 300 sites across land.
The designations will also help safeguard the feeding grounds for little terns, Sandwich terns, and common terns, which are all amber-listed due to declines in the size or range of their breeding populations. It will also cover the habitats frequented by the great northern diver and Eurasian spoonbill.
The expansion in the southwest will add a 24-mile stretch of coastline between Falmouth Bay and St Austell Bay in Cornwall to the Blue Belt, It targets the UK’s most important site for the wintering black-throated diver.
It is intended to help minimise disturbance to the feeding areas and marine habitats relied on by the black-throated diver and to provide a safe haven for them in winter.
UK Environment Minister Therese Coffey said: “Like the millions of others watching Blue Planet II, I am only too aware of the importance of protecting our precious marine environment and the wildlife that relies on healthy and productive seas.”
Natural England chairman Andrew Sells added that extending the Blue Belt was vital to protect the UK’s wildlife and help them “thrive into the future”.