Into the Age of the
Ocean. . .
We live in exciting times – moving
through the Age of Aquarius and into the new Millennium. Time perhaps, for Ireland as a
nation to review its whole outlook on its greatest natural resource – the sea. Under
the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, Ireland can lay claim to 900,000
square kilometres of territory beneath the waves – territory that has been, until
recently, not only underwater, but also undeveloped and undiscovered.
It is the job of the Marine Institute, which was set up in 1991 to undertake, promote
and assist marine research of all kinds, to make sure that this territory is not only
underwater, but also understood.
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Liz Barnwell
demonstrates how to age fish to Minister for the Marine and Natural Resources, Dr Michael
Woods, T.D. and Dr Sean P. Crowley, Chairman of the Marine Institute, at the Abbottstown
Laboratory. |
Abbottstown
In February 1998 the Minister for the Marine and Natural Resources, Dr Michael Woods,
turned the sod on a £1.25 million extension to the Marine Institute’s laboratories
at Abbottstown, Co. Dublin, which was completed by the end of the year. The new extension
contains specialist facilities for fish stock assessment – including a micro-tagging
facility, wet labs, cold room, electronic laboratory, fish ageing unit and dry lab –
and environmental monitoring – including a plankton laboratory. The new facility has
also allowed the "repatriation" of the Marine Institute’s Fish Health Unit
onto the Abbottstown complex, into new laboratories containing facilities for histology,
virology, sample preparation, bacteriology and post-mortem.
This puts the Abbottstown laboratory into a lead position to provide RTDI services to
both government and industry relating to a whole range of scientific and technical issues.
The Marine Institute has also initiated an on-board observer at sea programme (EU funded)
to monitor discarding by the Irish fishing fleet. The on-board observers are known as FATs
(Fleet Assessment Technicians) and are based in five fishing ports around the country.
Between 1993 and 1998, the FATs have sampled 175 fishing trips (852 days at sea), 2,878
hauls and have collected 443,839 individual fish records. The FATs also play an important
role in liasing with fishermen for the Marine Institute.
Galway
Meanwhile in Galway, last year the Marine Institute laid the foundations on its brand new
Technical Support Base on the Parkmore Industrial Estate. This campus of three buildings
includes a joint venture company – Marine Technical Development Services Limited
– between the Marine Institute and Marine Technology Limited whose core role will be
to develop and service Irish marine technological industries, including the Marine
Institute’s own research vessel Celtic Voyager. Other buildings "on campus"
in Galway include a specialist marine equipment store, and a large engineering facility
for the storage and maintenance of sea-going scientific equipment, as well as a purpose
built office/ laboratory facility that will act as home to a number of West coast marine
service facilities, including Single Bay Management for the aquaculture industry, research
vessel services, and the Institute’s Marine Technology Program. The proximity of the
base to the internationally acclaimed facilities at the Martin Ryan Marine Science
Institute at NUI Galway, greatly upgrades Ireland’s marine science capability in the
west.
Newport
This year the Salmon Research Agency of Ireland at Newport, Co. Mayo – which was
originally set up as a joint venture between Arthur Guinness and the then Minister for
Fisheries in 1955 – was incorporated into the Salmon Management Services Division of
the Marine Institute, and is currently undergoing a £500,000 upgrade. This unique
facility, with its access to both the wild fisheries and aquaculture systems, is a vital
addition to the Institute and will play a crucial role in the development of
Ireland’s Atlantic salmon and sea trout resources for both marine food and
recreation.
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The research
vessel Celtic Voyager deploys an ICAMS buoy off the South-West coast. |
Celtic Voyager
Out at sea, the research vessel Celtic Voyager has enjoyed a busy year on a wide variety
of duties, including a major project on the deployment of real-time data buoys as part of
the ICAMS – the Integrated Coastal Analysis and Monitoring System – which
represents the first ever deployment of data buoys in Irish coastal waters with the
capacity to "nowcast" ocean conditions (i.e. to measure the ocean and report
back their findings as they actually happen), information which could be of great
importance in understanding such phenomena as Red Tide outbreaks, pollution incidents,
fish migrations, harbour design and even the weather. This data will be used by a whole
range of people including: Bord Iascaigh Mhara, the Southern Regional Fisheries Board, Met
Eireann, Cork County Council, the Department of the Marine and Natural Resources, and the
Kenmare Bay Aquaculture Association, as well as being beamed direct to the Space
Applications Institute, at the EU Joint Research Centre in Italy.
In deeper water, results of the survey project using GLORIA (Geological Long Range
Inclined Asdic) has born fruit with the discovery of a number new submarine canyons and
extraordinary carbonate mounds, each up to 300 metres high. These deep water coral reefs,
consisting as they do of layer upon layer of slowly grown coral deposits, form a historic
record of the climate beneath the sea, dating back up to half a million years.
Other notable events during the year include the completion of the first ever
comprehensive assessment of the Irish marine environment through the Quality Status Report
team based in Shannon. This 388 page report is Ireland’s contribution to a
forthcoming assessment of the North-East Atlantic by the OSPAR (Oslo-Paris) Convention,
and concluded that, while Ireland’s coastal waters are no longer pristine, the state
of the marine environment is healthy overall.
Ireland has some 900,000 square kilometres of territory under the sea – territory
that, up until recently, has remained undeveloped, undiscovered and underwater. As we pass
into the new Millennium, the Marine Institute is working to ensure that this vast resource
is understood, protected and developed as never before.
Contact: The Marine Institute, 80 Harcourt Street, Dublin 2;
Tel: 01-478-0333; Fax: 01-478-4988;
more information is available on our home page at: http://www.marine.ie
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