Broadhaven Bay (c.70km2) in northwest Ireland has, since 2002, been the focus of a marine mammal monitoring programme surrounding a gas pipeline... » More

Broadhaven Bay (c.70km2) in northwest Ireland has, since 2002, been the focus of a marine mammal monitoring programme surrounding a gas pipeline development. The bay's Special Area of Conservation designation is due to the presence of habitats listed on Annex I of the EU Habitats Directive. Communities of high species richness and rare marine invertebrate species have been recorded in the bay's cave and reef habitats. Five comparable fieldwork seasons have generated a long-term dataset of dedicated effort-related watches from land (scan and focal sampling) including winter months, boat-based line transects, passive acoustic monitoring and bottlenose dolphin photo-identification. Eleven marine mammal species have been recorded in the area with confirmed year-round occurrence of bottlenose & common dolphin, harbour porpoise, minke whale and grey seal. Other species recorded include harbour seal, Risso's, white-beaked & Atlantic white-sided dolphin, orca and sei whale. Based on 241 survey days over five years average species richness peaked during summer months. Analysis is ongoing to investigate the wider context of this high marine mammal species richness and to assess potential impacts of pipeline development. Possible factors influencing local biodiversity include the bay's relative proximity to the continental shelf and effects of tidal fronts and local upwellings.

 

 

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