Summary/History
The Polish coast lies along the southern part of the Baltic Sea with proposed IBA areas encompassing mainly lagoons, bays, coast section and near shore lakes which form important sites for migrating and/or overwintering seabirds primarily ducks, grebes and divers including the Long-tailed Duck (VU) and the Velvet Scoter (EN). Other priority species include the Sandwich Tern (LC), Arctic Tern (LC), and Lesser Black-backed Gull (LC). Most of the near shore IBAs are regularly monitored, for example in Puck Bay and the Vistula River Mouth migrating/ wintering bird counts have been performed on a monthly basis since 1984. Open sea areas are rarely monitored due to a lack of funding for ship or aerial counts of seabirds, although some surveys have been conducted by the University of Gdansk.

Key threats to Polish seabirds include:
o Habitat modification especially along the coast including coastal urban and recreational development as a result of tourism pressures
o Construction of windfarms
o Overfishing and bycatch
o Pollution

National priorities
o BirdLife's polish partner OTOP is seeking to establish caretaker networks for all Polish IBAs including marine sites
o Resolving the problem of growing pressure from the windfarm industry
o Finding funding for ship and aerial counts of seabirds
o Enlarge the Natura 2000 network so that it encompasses newly proposed IBAs
o Create management plans for those IBAs without them

Government's support/relevant policy
All of the Polish Marine IBAs were classified as SPAs by the Ministry of Environment in October 2008, since then data suggests some additional sites should also be included. Please see policy tab for list of agreements that this country is party to.

References
o Sid?o P., B?aszkowska B., Chylarecki P. (2004). Important Bird Areas in Poland. OTOP. Warszawa (in polish with english summaries)
o Wilk T., Jujka M., Krogulec J., Chylarecki P. 2010. Important Bird Areas in Poland. OTOP. Warszawa (in polish with english summaries)