Appropriate Assessment Screening & Natura Impact Statement for Marine Surveys Off the Co. Wexford Coastline October 2019 Table of Contents 1. Introduction 1 1.1. Requirement for an Article 6 Assessment ............................................................................... 1 1.2. The Aim of this Report ............................................................................................................. 2 1.3. Consultation ............................................................................................................................. 2 2. Appropriate Assessment Process 3 2.1. Legislative Context .................................................................................................................. 3 2.2. Stages of AA ............................................................................................................................ 4 2.2.1. Stage 1. Screening for Appropriate Assessment ................................................................... 4 2.2.2. Stage 2. Appropriate Assessment (NIS) ................................................................................. 5 2.2.3. Stage 3. Alternative Solutions ............................................................................................... 5 2.2.4. Stage 4. Imperative Reasons of Overriding Public Interest (IROPI)/Derogation................... 6 3. Description of the Works 7 4. Description of the Receiving Environment 12 4.1. Annex I Habitats .................................................................................................................... 12 4.2. Annex II Species ..................................................................................................................... 21 4.3. Annex IV Species .................................................................................................................... 27 4.4. Special Conservation Interests (SCI) ...................................................................................... 29 5. Potential Impacts of the Surveys 30 5.1. Noise & Vibration ................................................................................................................... 30 5.1.1. Noise Associated with Site Surveys ...................................................................................... 30 5.1.2. Noise Associated with Vessels.............................................................................................. 33 5.2. Physical Disturbance .............................................................................................................. 34 5.3. Collision Risk .......................................................................................................................... 34 5.4. Potential Disturbance to Life-Cycle ....................................................................................... 35 5.5. Habitat Disturbance ............................................................................................................... 35 5.6. Contamination / Accidental Events ....................................................................................... 35 6. Stage 1 Appropriate Assessment (Screening) 36 6.1. Identification of Relevant Natura 2000 Sites and Qualifying Interests/Special Conservation Interests ........................................................................................................................................... 36 6.2. Screening Assessment ........................................................................................................... 42 6.3. Screening Statement ............................................................................................................. 44 7. Stage 2 Appropriate Assessment (Natura Impact Statement) 45 7.1. Characteristics of Relevant Sites ........................................................................................... 45 7.1.1. Slaney River Valley SAC (IE000781) ..................................................................................... 45 7.1.2. Lambay Island SAC (IE000204) ............................................................................................. 45 7.1.3. Saltee Islands SAC (IE000707) .............................................................................................. 45 7.1.4. Rockabill to Dalkey SAC (IE003000) ..................................................................................... 46 7.1.5. Pembrokeshire Marine SAC / Sir Benfro Forol (UK13116) .................................................. 46 7.1.6. Cardigan Bay SAC / Bae Ceredigion (UK12712) .................................................................. 46 7.1.7. Pen Llŷn a'r Sarnau / Lleyn Peninsula and the Sarnau SAC (UK13117) ............................... 47 7.1.8. West Wales Marine SAC / Gorllewin Cymru Forol (UK0030397) ......................................... 47 7.1.9. North Anglesey Marine SAC / Gogledd Môn Forol (UK0030398) ....................................... 48 7.2. Conservation Objectives of Relevant Sites ........................................................................... 49 7.2.1. Slaney River Valley SAC (IE000781) ..................................................................................... 49 7.2.2. Lambay Island SAC (IE000204) ............................................................................................. 51 7.2.3. Saltee Islands SAC (IE000707) .............................................................................................. 53 7.2.4. Rockabill to Dalkey SAC (IE003000) ..................................................................................... 53 7.2.5. Pembrokeshire Marine SAC / Sir Benfro Forol (UK13116) .................................................. 53 7.2.6. Cardigan Bay SAC / Bae Ceredigion (UK12712) .................................................................. 54 7.2.7. Pen Llŷn a'r Sarnau / Lleyn Peninsula and the Sarnau SAC (UK13117) ............................... 55 7.2.8. West Wales Marine SAC / Gorllewin Cymru Forol (UK0030397) ......................................... 55 7.2.9. North Anglesey Marine SAC / Gogledd Môn Forol (UK0030398) ....................................... 56 7.3. Impact Assessment ................................................................................................................ 57 7.3.1. Harbour porpoise Phocoena phocoena [1351] ................................................................... 57 7.3.2. Bottlenose dolphin Tursiops truncatus [1349] .................................................................... 57 7.3.3. Grey seal Halichoerus grypus [1365].................................................................................... 57 7.3.4. Harbour seal Phoca vitulina [1365] ..................................................................................... 58 7.3.5. Twaite shad All [1365] ......................................................................................................... 58 8. Cumulative Impacts 58 9. References 59 List of Figures Figure 2.1: Stages in the AA process (Source: DEHLG, 2009). .......................................................................... 4 Figure 3.1: Proposed marine survey areas. ..................................................................................................... 10 Figure 3.2: Indicative locations of vibrocores/grab, CPT and borehole locations. ....................................... 11 Figure 4.1: Seabed substrata in the area (Source: Marine Institute, 2019)................................................... 14 Figure 4.2: Faunal biotopes in the area (Source: modified from Mackey, 1990). ........................................ 15 Figure 4.3: Annex I and OSPAR Habitats in the vicinity of the survey areas. .............................................. 15 Figure 4.4: Natura 200 sites in the vicinity of the Cable Route Corridor ...................................................... 17 Figure 4.5: Annex I habitats in the Buckroney – Brittas Dunes and Fen SAC (IE000729) (NPWS, 2017a) ... 18 Figure 4.6: Annex I habitats in the Cahore Polders and Dunes SAC (IE000700) (NPWS, 2016) ................... 19 Figure 4.7: Annex I habitats in the Kilpatrick Sandhills SAC (IE001742) (NPWS, 2017b) ............................. 20 Figure 4.8: Breeding, moult haul-out and resting sites for harbour seals in Wexford Harbour. ................ 22 Figure 4.9: Breeding, moult haul-out and resting sites for grey seals at the Saltee Islands. ...................... 24 Figure 4.10: Harbour porpoise sightings in and adjacent to the proposed survey areas (Berrow, 2019). 25 Figure 4.11: Bottlenose and Common dolphin sightings in and adjacent to the proposed survey areas (Berrow, 2019). ................................................................................................................................ 26 Figure 4.12: Risso’s and unidentified dolphin sightings in and adjacent to the proposed windfarm site (Berrow, 2019). ................................................................................................................................ 28 Figure 4.13: Minke and humpback whale sightings in and adjacent to the proposed survey areas (Berrow, 2019). ................................................................................................................................ 29 Figure 6.1: Location of relevant SACs and SPAs in the vicinity of the proposed survey areas. ................. 41 List of Tables Table 5.1: Noise levels associated with the proposed surveys .....................................................................
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