The marine environment

The island coastline of Ireland and its marine habitats provide important commercial, amenity and biodiversity functions. Many coastal areas are now designated within the Natura 2000 network of European protection sites (SACs & SPAs); these may include estuarine, intertidal, subtidal and offshore habitats listed on Annex I of the EU Habitats Directive (1992).

Projects that may require marine surveys include:

• Harbours, jetties and slipways
• Waste water treatment plants and discharge licences
• Coastal zone management, coastal realignment and erosion protection projects
• Scientific surveys and monitoring
• Coastal and offshore wind and renewable energy developments
• Aquaculture licensing
• Dredging operations
• Land reclamation

ECOFACT services in the marine environment encompass habitat and biotope surveys of the coastal zone, the intertidal zone and the subtidal zone. All survey, sampling and impact assessment methodologies are according to current Irish and international protocol and are carried out by ECOFACT staff.

Key marine services provided by ECOFACT include:

• Transitional waters and estuarine habitat assessments including fisheries and protected species assessments, botanical surveys and aquatic biological communities assessments
• Intertidal surveys including shoreline transects, quadrat surveys, core sampling (including the processing, identification and interpretation of biological communities encountered)
• Benthic subtidal surveys including faunal identification, enumeration, infaunal grab and core sampling
• Coastal habitats and biological assessments, coastal zone management including erosion and storm protection, engineering and infrastructural developments, discharge monitoring
• Chemical water quality assessments including the sampling and interpretation of results
• Coastal habitat assessments and habitat mapping
• Marine and coastal bird surveys
• Sediment sampling (grabs, cores) from freshwater or marine environments can be carried out by ECOFACT and analysis for particle size, microbiological/bacteriological counts, heavy metals and other contaminants carried out

If you are interested in finding out more about our marine ecology consultancy services, please contact info@ecofact.ie