News - Ocean Focus

Widespread pollution behind Ireland’s self-styled green image

For the Irish tax-payer trying to grasp the magnitude of our national debt which is measured in the billions, news that the country has been fined a mere €2.7 million - plus a daily penalty of €26,173 for not implementing on time key EU environmental legislation – might seem like very small change indeed.

Do the sums however, and that daily penalty mounts up to an annual bill of €9.5 million – and will be recurring until the necessary legislation is put in place.

Positioning on global markets and jobs potential hang in the balance

Aquaculture

Marine Harvest Southwest, the Castletownbere-based subsidiary of Marine Harvest Ireland – the country’s largest salmon farmers and processors of organic and premium eco-label salmon – is on track to achieving its 2011 production target but could double sales of organic farmed salmon in line with demand abroad if aquaculture licensing * was resolved.

Speaking to Inshore Ireland, operations manager John Power says the industry is looking to Minister Coveney to “get to grips” with the issue that has dogged aquaculture for the past decade.

“Like everyone involved in the aquaculture industry, I’m hopeful that the new marine minister will have enough clout at the cabinet table and will act quickly to sort out this ten year log-jam.

"With his background knowledge of Ireland’s marine sector, Minister Coveney is well aware there are real jobs in aquaculture, with real people and real expertise. And there’s no doubt given a fair chance, we can produce the goods and create employment where it really counts – in the remoter parts of the country,” Power declares.

Does reopening of the Castlemaine fishery breach Ireland’s salmon management rules?

Fisheries

Martin O’Farrell

The Minister of State at the Department of Communications, Energy & Natural Resources in 2010 allowed a pilot fishery to take in place inside Castlemaine Harbour and requested advice from Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI) on:

'How a commercial salmon fishery could be operated on salmon stocks in the Castlemaine Harbour Special Area of Conservation in a sustainable manner, maximizing the opportunities for commercial fishing while ensuring that stocks are not over-exploited.'

An untapped potential laps our shores

Fisheries

Senator David Norris has been a member of the Trinity College Dublin University Panel in Seanad Éireann since 1987 and is a founding member of the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs. He was Senior Lecturer in the Department of English in Trinity College Dublin from 1968 to 1996.

He is one of Ireland’s leading Joyce scholars; was the Founding Chairman of the James Joyce Centre; the North Great George’s Street Preservation Society and Friends of the Library (longest serving Chairman) TCD. His main areas of concern are national and international human and civil rights, equality issues for gay and lesbian people and conservation of Dublin architectural history. He studied the piano with the late Lily Huban at the Reade Pianoforte School in Harcourt Street.

Senator David Norris

One of the powerful influences on my life was my aunt who being a midlands woman distrusted and was fearful of the sea. She was my mother’s older sister and my mother and she reared me after the death of my father when I was six. He was an English man, John Norris, lover of the sea, a sailor and a holder of Lloyd’s Medal (The Marine VC) from the First World War.

Like all his forbears before him he felt that strong pull of the ocean tide. The name Norris in fact just means ‘Norseman’ or ‘Viking’ so it is just as well that the genetic balance was rescued by this infusion of Norse-English blood which gave me my own love of the sea.

I sometimes think we in Ireland don’t often realise we are an island, and should indeed in the words of Dominic Behan’s ironic song: Thank God We’re Surrounded be Water. Of course James Joyce in his novel Ulysses and in Finnegan’s Wake gives us a wonderfully musical evocation of the sea and its moods and movement but it is only a lingering glance.

Ireland is ‘closed for business’ declares ocean energy body

Marine

Ireland is in danger of losing out to Scotland in the highly lucrative and jobs-rich ocean energy industry unless government steps up its commitment to provide the necessary support, according to the body representing wave and tidal interests.

Reacting to news that Scotland had recently been ear-marked for wave energy projects in the order of 50 megawatts worth €250m of investment, the Marine Renewables Industry Association (MRIA) declared in a statement that ‘astute political management, ambition and sheer hunger for jobs has seen [Scotland] emerge as the clear winners of the first round in the battle to dominate the sector’.

A new hand at the helm of the marine sector

Fisheries

& Gillian Mills

One of the youngest members of the new government, Simon Coveney displays a genuine interest in his portfolio, and above all for the marine sector, based on personal interest and experience of things maritime.

Whilst only a few short months as Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, he brings a sense of urgency that just might see an end to bureaucracy and logjams that have stymied development across many elements of the marine sector.

Inshore Ireland spoke to Minister Coveney to tease out his ambitions for a sector that has long since sought Cabinet recognition to achieve its full potential.

The inshore fleet at Dunmore East. Photo Gillian Mills/Inshore Ireland

Guidance to compliance for the Irish inshore fleet

Fisheries

The Sea-Fisheries Protection Authority’s Guide to Compliance for the Irish Inshore Fleet is a concise guide that summarises the principal requirements applying to Irish fishing vessels under 15 metres operating in Irish inshore waters. The guide is available in both Irish and English language versions from SFPA port offices, which are located in the Main Fishery Harbour Centres. Typically the inshore fleet comprises fishing vessels under 15m, representing approximately 87 per cent of the entire Irish fleet in terms of vessel numbers.

The inshore fleet at Dunmore East. Photo Gillian Mills/Inshore Ireland

The guide was developed through ongoing cooperation between the SFPA and the Irish South and East Fish Producers Organisation, the Kilmore Quay Harbour Users Group in conjunction with the Ministerial appointed SFPA Consultative Committee and other industry stakeholders.

Will Ireland again lose out to foreign investment – this time on marine energy?

Marine

A major conference supported by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) has heard that marine energy harnessed from offshore wind, wave and tidal sources presents Ireland with a potential revenue and employment bonanza; however unless government renews its commitment to the sector the opportunity could be lost.

Delivering Ireland’s Ocean Energy Targets - developing Europe’s Ocean Energy Hub & Securing Ireland’s Energy Future heard from the SEAI’s Eoin Sweeney that marine renewables also addressed the twin challenges facing Europe in terms of climate change and security of energy supply.

Review to bring parity of crawfish minimum landing size underway

Fisheries

The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Simon Coveney, has asked BIM to review current conservation measures for crawfish by July 29 because the current prohibition on landings below 110mm “present difficulties for Irish inshore fishermen as smaller crawfish are preferred by European markets”.

He added that a range of technical conservation measures were in use internationally.

“I want to see if we can find a management strategy for this species which will allow Irish inshore fishermen to compete in international markets, while stabilising the stock and ensuring its long-term sustainability and bringing to an end undesirably by-catch.”