Harbour Porpoise Seasonal Conservation Areas in UK Waters

Joint Nature Conservation Committee provides shapefiles showing seasonal components for harbour porpoise Special Areas of Conservation. The data reflects areas and seasons where harbour porpoise densities are persistently higher, relevant for managing human activity. The resource was last updated on 2026-04-14.

Use Cases

• Modeling seasonal habitat usage for harbour porpoises based on described density patterns.
• Planning marine activity management zones based on seasonal conservation area boundaries.
• Analyzing spatial overlap between human activities and seasonal porpoise distribution.
• Comparing single-season versus multi-season conservation site management strategies.

Strengths

• Explicitly defines seasonal components (summer/winter) for five designated harbour porpoise SACs.
• Specifies the map projections used (British National Grid, European Albers Equal Area Conic) and the coastal boundary delineation method (Mean Low Water Springs).
• Last updated date is provided (2026-04-14).

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.

Provenance

Source

Joint Nature Conservation Committee

Collection Method

Shapefiles derived from site boundaries initially drawn in British National Grid and Irish National Grid projections.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-14 09:48:17.274970; freshness should be verified.

Geography

UK Continental Shelf waters, including Secretary of State waters and Northern Ireland waters.