SAC's & SPA's

Another plethora of acronyms in todays posting includes SAC's (Special Area of Conservation), and SPA's (Special Protection Area). Both of these areas can be found at Flamborough Head.

SAC's are a European Community thing which was born in 1992 when the EU decided to create lists of interesting or rare habitats and species that might need protection. The UK government legislated to support this concept in 1994 (The Conservation (Natural Habitats, &c.) Regulations 1994). Flamborough Head has a number of interesting species and habitats.

SPA's have a longer history and were brought into existence under EU legislation in 1979 known commonly as the 'bird directive' . They are designated areas which aim to protect wild birds and their habitats/feeding areas . Flamborough Head and Bempton Cliffs are deignated as an SPA.

An overview of SAC's and SPA's can be found at the JNCC Site (tomorrows acronym) at:

JNCC

Details of the Flamborough designations can be found at the :

East Yorkshire Coastal Observatory

JNCC & MNCR Two for the price of One

The JNCC is the Joint Nature Conservation Committee which acts as the Government's advisor on all things Natural. In the 1980's the JNCC started a major project, mapping the underwater and marine habitats and species around our coasts. This project was known as the Marine Nature Conservation Review (MNCR).

Many of the details of the MNCR are available on the internet including descriptions of scores of different underwater habitats (it's that biodiversity thing again).

See the link at : http://www.jncc.gov.uk/page-3

CEFAS - Centre for Environment, Fisheries & Aquaculture Science

The marine science wing of DEFRA (an acronym for another day) is sited at Lowestoft. The CEFAS site includes a reasonable search engine, try the keywords 'North Sea Plankton' and you will find an interesting report of plankton surveys on our coast.

The site is at:

http://www.cefas.co.uk/