When there is information from different colonies or sub-populations for the same species, within a marine demarcation, the representativeness of each enclave has been assessed when integrating, based on expert criteria. As a precaution, whenever an enclave considered as important for a certain species presents a negative BEA, a negative BEA is defined at marine demarcation level, even if in other enclaves the situation seems more favourable. However, if the enclave evaluated negatively is considered marginal and/or not very representative, the species can be evaluated with a positive BEA if it is defined as such in other enclaves. In cases of doubt, the evaluation of the OAB has been left in "amber" (i.e., as a precaution it is considered that the OAB is not reached, although the situation is not clearly unfavorable).

As indicated above, little weight is given to the species groups, as the proposed classification does not seem to be adequate to define the species in the Spanish sea basin districts. It is also not considered appropriate for integration at the level of all seabirds, as evaluation elements deserve specific attention, whether or not they are considered to be the whole bird community in BEB.
As regards the integration of the different criteria in order to provide a joint assessment of BBE by species, the ICES recommendations have been followed (ICES 2018 (a)), with the amendments recently incorporated by the JWGBIRD (ICES 2018b). In a nutshell, any species that do not comply with the BBE for a primary criterion would be considered not to comply with the BEA at the level of the Demarcación Marina. In this regard, criterion D1C3 on C1D2 has been given priority in this case, for the reasons set out above.

The integration rule is being developed in the framework of the Joint OSPAR/HELCOM/ICES Working Group on Seabirds.