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Coastal Development in Ireland
File image of Ballyconnell Bridge on the Shannon-Erne Waterway in Co Cavan
Waterways Ireland advises masters of vessels that dredging operations are taking place on the Shannon-Erne Waterway in Co Cavan until next Thursday 30 September. Dredging works are in the vicinity of Lock 1 at Corraquil, Lock 2 at Ballydonnell and…
File image of Dingle Harbour
Marine Minister Charlie McConalogue has continued his series of visits to some of Ireland’s main fishing ports, spending yesterday and today (Thursday 16 and Friday 17 September) in Co Kerry. The minister met with fishers, fishing organisations and other stakeholders…
The Cliffs of Moher in North Clare
The most popular location in Ireland for taking selfies is … the Cliffs of Moher. That’s according to a new roundup of the 25 most popular selfie spots compiled by travel website EnjoyTravel. The breathtaking North Clare coastal cliffs round…
According to CoastWatch, Seagrass is on the decline in many protected areas around the Irish coast. More needs to be done to halt further losses, properly protect inshore ecosystems and find areas to restore carbon and biodiversity-rich seagrass beds
A natural marine resource more important than the rain forests is in danger of dying out unless funding is provided to help protect it. Zostera Marina is a type of seagrass which grows in the inshore areas of south Wexford,…
The aircraft flew south over the beach’s main carpark from Ballyheigue in the direction of Barrow in County Kerry - see video below
Eyewitnesses to an incident where a helicopter cruised at low level in thick fog across a popular Kerry beach have questioned why the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) is not pursuing it further. Video footage of the incident shows the helicopter…
Jenni Barkley of Belfast Harbour Commissioners and Helen Tomb from Live Here Love Here. The cleanup is the first date in a month of activities and events coming after the annual increase in coastal litter created during summer months.
The largest ever coastal clean-up in Northern Ireland is planned for later this month - if enough volunteers turn up. Live Here Love Here has sent out a call to people to "play their part" in cleaning up their nearest…
A seagrass meadow in Kilmore Quay that’s threatened by invasive seaweed
In Co Wexford, a seven-year-old boy has joined the grassroots effort to conserve vulnerable seagrass beds around Ireland’s coastline. According to RTÉ News, Shem Berry has lent a helping hand to volunteers who have been clearing an invasive seaweed, Sargassum…
Image of the Scientific Investigations intro from the Sea and Inland Fisheries report for 1906
In celebration of National Heritage Week 2021, the Marine Institute has launched a new Interactive Marine Archive where you can explore two rare historical collections on Irish sea and inland fisheries. The digitised collections include the Sea and Inland Fisheries…
Wally the Arctic walrus resting on a pontoon in the Isles of Scilly in July 2021
Wally the Arctic walrus’ trail of destruction along the South Coast may be curbed by the provision of a ‘floating couch’ for the large marine mammal, as the Irish Examiner reports. Following his return to Irish shores earlier this month…
Senator Victor Boyhan
Dun Laoghaire-based Senator Victor Boyhan has welcomed the Government’s decision to publish the full text of the Maritime Area Planning Bill 2021 and accompanying Explanatory Memorandum today. As previously reported today (Monday 16 August), the Bill seeks to put in…
The full text of the Maritime Area Planning Bill 2021 & accompanying Explanatory Memorandum have been published today. This legislation intends to put in place a comprehensive & coherent planning system for the entire Maritime Area:
The Maritime Area Planning Bill 2021 and accompanying Explanatory Memorandum have been published today by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. The publication was approved at Cabinet on 29th June 2021 and confirmed by An Taoiseach Michéal Martin…
Four Seasons in a Day poster
A documentary on the lives of people in coastal communities connected by the Carlingford Lough ferry will have its premiere in a special outdoor drive-in screening this Thursday (19 August). Four Seasons in a Day is one of six documentaries…
Flossie Donnelly (third from right) with young volunteers at the Sandycove portion of the nationwide Big Weigh In on Saturday 31 July
Nearly three-and-a-half tonnes of rubbish was removed from Ireland’s coastal areas and inland waterways this weekend as part of a nationwide ‘Big Weigh In’. Organised by Flossie and the Beach Cleaners, the first-for-Ireland clean-up saw more than 400 people take…
”Marine
Local coastal community groups and micro enterprises will benefit among 62 grants worth more than €900,000 awarded by Fisheries Local Action Groups (FLAGs) under Ireland’s European Maritime and Fisheries Fund Programme (EMFF). Announcing the grant awards totalling €915,295, Marine Minister…
Just 40 per cent of 32 coastal areas surveyed were deemed clean to “European norms”
Fewer than half of the beaches and harbours in the State have been deemed clean, but the situation is getting better, according to an annual survey published by Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL). Cork Harbour at Blackrock Castle and White…
Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Darragh O’Brien
Two Government ministers have called on people to give their views on the expansion of Ireland’s marine protected areas (MPAs) before the deadline at the end of this week. Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Darragh O’Brien and Minister…

Coastal Notes Coastal Notes covers a broad spectrum of stories, events and developments in which some can be quirky and local in nature, while other stories are of national importance and are on-going, but whatever they are about, they need to be told.

Stories can be diverse and they can be influential, albeit some are more subtle than others in nature, while other events can be immediately felt. No more so felt, is firstly to those living along the coastal rim and rural isolated communities. Here the impact poses is increased to those directly linked with the sea, where daily lives are made from earning an income ashore and within coastal waters.

The topics in Coastal Notes can also be about the rare finding of sea-life creatures, a historic shipwreck lost to the passage of time and which has yet many a secret to tell. A trawler's net caught hauling more than fish but cannon balls dating to the Napoleonic era.

Also focusing the attention of Coastal Notes, are the maritime museums which are of national importance to maintaining access and knowledge of historical exhibits for future generations.

Equally to keep an eye on the present day, with activities of existing and planned projects in the pipeline from the wind and wave renewables sector and those of the energy exploration industry.

In addition Coastal Notes has many more angles to cover, be it the weekend boat leisure user taking a sedate cruise off a long straight beach on the coast beach and making a friend with a feathered companion along the way.

In complete contrast is to those who harvest the sea, using small boats based in harbours where infrastructure and safety poses an issue, before they set off to ply their trade at the foot of our highest sea cliffs along the rugged wild western seaboard.

It's all there, as Coastal Notes tells the stories that are arguably as varied to the environment from which they came from and indeed which shape people's interaction with the surrounding environment that is the natural world and our relationship with the sea.