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Special Protection Areas (SPAs) are special sites designated under the to protect rare, vulnerable and migratory birds.

The proposal for Liverpool Bay / Bae Lerpwl is to extend the SPA to support internationally important populations of:

• common tern
• little tern
• little gull

This area is particularly important for the terns as much of the sea around their breeding colonies is the ideal habitat for plunge diving for food.

The proposal is also to add cormorant and red-breasted merganser to the waterbird assemblage as named species.

The proposal is available as a series of separate documents (attached above). You should:

• read the consultation summary that sets out the aims of the proposal
• read the departmental brief that provides the scientific explanation behind the proposal
• use the maps to locate the proposal site and extension area
• read the separate impact assessment on the Welsh portion of the site (available to read on the Natural Resources Wales website in and languages)

To download site boundaries as vector polygons in ESRI ArcMap shapefile or Pitney Bowes MapInfo tab:

• go to Natural England鈥檚
• scroll to the bottom of the Dataset Downloads page
• choose option 2
• login as a registered user or
• add personal details as a new user and click on 鈥榬egister鈥�
• scroll to the bottom of the 鈥楧ataset Download Selection鈥� page
• use the Select Data Type drop down menu and select 鈥楽pecial Protection Areas (Marine)鈥�

This will download a zip file which you can open in your mapping software. Select 鈥楲iverpool Bay鈥� from the attribute table.