Sectoral marine plan: appropriate assessment

Appendix Three: Screening Maps - Per DPO

The figures below provide an overview of the screening maps per DPO (please note, maps for DPOs SW1 and NE5 have not been included here as these DPOs have not been chosen to progress as final Plan Options).

A 100 km buffer was used in the screening process (as agreed with the Steering Groups), which captured all sites within the buffer, irrespective of the foraging ranges of the designated species. Where Thaxter et al identified species with mean max. foraging ranges larger than the 100 km buffer, the mean max. foraging ranges were used to screen in additional SPA and Ramsar sites, including;

• Atlantic puffin (105 km);
• Lesser black-backed gull (141 km);
• Manx Shearwater (330 km);
• Northern Fulmar (400 km); and
• Northern Gannet (229 km).

These maps are also included at Appendix E of the HRA Report (2019).