New assessments by Natural Resources Wales show the conditions of marine protected areas in Wales and the need for improvement in habitats, biodiversity, and water quality.

Nutrient pollution is a major issue affecting the conservation of these areas.

The assessments, funded by the Welsh Government, are the first of their kind in Wales and will inform future actions to preserve and enhance the marine environment.

A total of 85 features designated across 17 marine special areas of conservation (SACs) and special protected areas (SPAs) have been assessed to determine if their conservation objectives are being met. This covers 37% of the Welsh Marine Protected Area network.

These features include a range of rare and protected species and habitats, such as grey seals, sea lamprey, otter, sandbanks, mudflats, reefs and saltmarsh.

Amongst the conservation objectives are targets for water quality, linked to the Water Framework Directive Regulations classifications, which were recently published in March.

This shows that nutrient pollution, in the form of dissolved inorganic nitrogen, is one of the main reasons that the features of some sites are in unfavourable condition.

Funded by the Welsh Government through the Nature Networks Fund, this is the first time evidence on this scale has been collected on the state of Wales’s protected marine environment and is one of the most extensive reports to date on the state of marine protected areas in Europe.

Cross border marine sites have not been included at this stage, but will be assessed jointly with Natural England and the JNCC over the next few years. This information gives the evidence needed to improve the condition of our MPA network in Wales.

Twelve new conservation advice packages have also been developed using information from the condition assessments. This detailed and targeted advice will support and improve sustainable management of these important sites by NRW and partner organisations.

Mary Lewis, Head of Natural Resource Management from NRW said: “As well as being home to some of Wales’s most unique and threatened habitats and species, our coastal areas are treasured by local communities and are an important contributor to the Welsh economy through tourism and recreation.

“A huge amount of knowledge and expertise has been drawn upon to produce such comprehensive evidence about the condition of our protected marine areas – this will now provide an important baseline for us to monitor progress.

“This is an important first step towards prioritising the actions needed to improve the long term health of our much-loved marine environment.

“In recent years there has been much focus on the health of our SAC rivers and action at scale to drive the much-needed improvements to water quality. While this work continues, we must now also focus our attention on the action needed to improve the health of the wildlife, habitat and water quality within our marine environment.”

Full assessments and conservation advice can be found on the NRW website.