One of the indicators for measuring the impact of the Atlantic Action Plan is the change in short sea shipping. Short sea shipping is the maritime transport of goods over relatively short distances in for example a sea basin like the Atlantic Area. Here, the figures produced are for shipping between Atlantic Area NUTS3 regions (which here includes Canaries, Azores & Madeira) and the partner entities of Ireland, UK, France (Atlantic Coast), Spain and Portugal*.

The graph below shows Atlantic Area short sea shipping in the period 2010-2019 and it shows that prior to the Atlantic Action Plan in 2013 that there was a drop in levels of short sea shipping in the Atlantic Area dropping from 274 million tonnes in 2011 to 239 million tonnes in 2013, a decrease of 12.8% over 2 years. However, it quickly bounced back to 267 million tonnes in 2014 and from 2014 to 2019 saw an increase of 4.3%

It may be more useful to breakdown the aggregate figures shown above and see the trends in short sea shipping broken down by types of cargo. The graph below shows this breakdown and the large decrease from 2011 to 2013, when seen through the cargo lenses, seems to be driven by a fall in short sea shipping of bulk goods, both liquid and dry. The fall in liquid bulk had not recovered by 2019 and maybe a reflection of a longer-term move towards renewable energy, sustainable transport and energy-efficient buildings away from oil which is a significant portion of the liquid bulk cargo. Most of the rise since 2014 has been driven by growth in dry bulk and container transport (both Ro-Ro and Large Containers) although more recently, for the period 2016 to 2019, the Atlantic Area has seen a decrease of 8.7% in one the largest cargos in the Atlantic Area short sea shipping cargos; Ro-Ro (Mobile self-propelled units).