Expertise to carry out AA reporting as it relates to aquaculture and fisheries

The provision of scientific expertise, as proposed here, will provide the Marine Institute a facility to better measure and manage the risks to conservation features from aquaculture and fisheries activities and provide robust scientific advice to DAFM in a timely fashion. This staff member would be involved in:

1. The preparation of AA reports for Aquaculture in SPAs and SACs, where external assistance is not required under the projects, Appropriate assessment of aquaculture activities in Natura 2000 Special Protection Areas and Appropriate assessment of aquaculture activities in Natura 2000 Special Areas of Conservation.
2. These tasks are expected to be numerous in number and cover both full AA assessments as well as AA Screening exercises.
3. Ongoing review of Article 12 (SPA) and 17 (SAC) reporting results and methods published by NPWS and future reports as they are produced. The outputs of these reports will inform risk assessment, validate AA conclusions, propose management recommendations and develop monitoring programmes to measure likely interactions between conservation features and aquaculture and fisheries operations. 
4. Review of external AA guidance and risk assessment methodologies with the goal of ongoing improvement of the AA reporting process in both SPAs and SACs. 
5. Provide a direct link to the project SEABA: Standardised  Ecosystem Approach to Benthic Assessments (EMFF) which has as a priority to assess the rigour of advice provision in relation to benthic effects of fisheries aquaculture in Natura 2000 sites and beyond. 
6. To oversee the execution of targeted research efforts to inform licensing advice, (e.g. bird telemetry studies and habitat studies).

This project is essential to the delivery of advice and services for aquaculture, fisheries and Natura sites, under the PAF and Priority Area 2 of the EMFAF Biodiversity / Aquaculture programme.