Menu

Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

Displaying items by tag: Limerick

Waterways Ireland advises masters of vessels on and users of the Shannon Navigation that the waiting jetty at the Railway Bridge in Limerick has been relocated to George’s Quay.

The jetty will be reinstated to its original location in March 2024 in time for the end of the winter period on Ireland’s inland waterways.

Published in Inland Waterways

Waterways Ireland advises masters of vessels and waterway users on the Shannon Navigation that the waiting jetties at the Railway Bridge in Limerick will be reinstated at the end of March.

As previously reported on Afloat.ie, the jetties had been relocated to Georges Quay from the end of October last year for the winter period.

Published in Inland Waterways

Waterways Ireland advises masters of vessels and waterway users on the Shannon Navigation that the waiting jetties at the Railway Bridge in Limerick will be relocated to Georges Quay from Saturday 29 October.

These jetties will be reinstated to their original location in March 2023, the cross-border body for Ireland’s inland waterways adds.

Published in Inland Waterways

A Limerick councillor has hit out at what he branded as the “utter incompetence” of inland fisheries officers after images circulated on social media of as many as 60 salmon allegedly poached from the River Shannon.

As the Limerick Leader reports, the images show the the wild salmon lined up in a front garden, with three men alongside giving thumbs up.

It’s understood that the salmon are thought to have been illegally netted from the tail race at the Ardnacrusha hydro-electric plant.

Commenting on the images, Cllr Emmett O’Brien did not mince his words as he directed his ire at Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI).

“The dogs in the street know that poachers are putting out nets and catching salmon swimming in the tail race,” he said, adding that there is a black market for such salmon throughout Limerick city.

“But bizarrely the IFI officers rarely if ever patrol the tail race but rather seem intent to race up and down the river in large power boats like Navy Seals.”

IFI says it is “currently investigating the circumstances of this incident and is therefore not in a position to comment further at this stage”.

The Limerick Leader has more on the story HERE.

Published in Angling

Residents of a Limerick suburb on the banks of the River Shannon say they were not consulted about plans for a new kayaking facility in a local park.

As the Limerick Leader reports, locals close to Shannon Fields have hit out at the proposals for a fenced-off hard stand and storage unit for the Limerick Kayak Academy on park lands provided by Limerick City and County Council.

Speaking for the residents of the neighbouring Irish Estates, Cllr Frankie Daly said: “The lack of consultation is beyond a joke.”

Their campaign has the support of former champion rower Maxine Murphy, who suggests that Curragower Falls in the city centre would be a better location for the kayakers' needs.

But the council counters that residents will have every right to express their opinions as part of the planning process.

The Limerick Leader has more on the story HERE.

Published in Kayaking
Tagged under

A working group has been established to develop a proposal for a Shannon Greenway connecting the city of Limerick with Lough Derg.

Waterways Ireland says it is working together with Clare County Council, Limerick City & County Council and others on the plans, which are still at an early concept stage.

However, it is understood that the working group has already been charged with examining possible route options and designs, as well as environmental considerations, costs and funding sources.

Also being considered is whether public lands between Limerick and Tuamgraney/Scarriff in Co Clare — especially the towpaths of the Park and Erinagh Canals and various ESB embankments — could be used for the project.

Published in Inland Waterways

The Office of Public Works has been accused of showing “disdain” for Ireland’s natural heritage over flood relief works on a waterway in Co Limerick.

The Irish Wildlife Trust (IWT) criticised the clearing last year of some 3km of wild habitat from the River Newport, east of Limerick city and within the Lower Shannon SAC.

The conservation group accuses the OPW of conducting the clearance works — in which “entire stretches of the riverbank had been stripped down to bare soil” — in the absence of the Appropriate Assessment legally required under Irish and EU law.

It is suggested these works have jeopardised an important habitat for otters and wet Willow woodland, while also potentially exacerbating the spread of invasive plan species such as Japanese knotweed and giant hogweed.

The IWT says it visited the River Newport in December and found that “works had greatly exceeded what had been set out” in the OPW’s initial screening report, which the group has branded “largely inaccurate”.

IWT campaigns officer Pádraic Fogarty said: “The OPW is not above the law but yet it seems to think that it can operate with impunity. The damage it has done to our rivers is incalculable; this instance at the Newport in Limerick is not untypical of the distain they show for our natural heritage.”

Similar complaints have been levied against OPW works in Skibbereen, where a stream feeding the River Ilen has been re-engineered as a concrete culvert.

The OPW did not respond to queries from either The Sunday Times or The Green News.

Published in Marine Wildlife

RTÉ News reports that a 12-year-old girl was hospitalised after an incident on the River Shannon in Limerick city yesterday morning (Saturday 23 February).

It’s understood that she was one of four girls on a boat that overturned in the river near the Old Salmon Weir.

The casualty became trapped underneath as her hair tangled with the boat’s outriggers, according to BreakingNews.ie.

An eyewitness said the girls’ rowing boat was in a fast current and had broken in two.

“I’m haunted all day. It’s the screams. I can still hear the girls screaming, ‘help, help help’,” said local man Danny Ryan, who rang 999 as he watched the scene unfold.

The casualty was freed from the boat by a team of firefighters trained in river rescue who were alerted while on patrol at the time.

Elsewhere, the Irish Coast Guard were involved in a ‘difficult’ rescue of two people from Poll na Péist on Inis Mór in the Aran Islands, which previously hosted the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series.

Published in News Update
Tagged under

#Rowing: Salesian Secondary College in Limerick won the Open/Club boys section of the All Ireland Indoor Rowing Blitz in Trinity College Dublin today. The Limerick school had a best time of 6 minutes 22.4 seconds for the 2,000 metres on the ergometer. Another Limerick school, Laurel Hill College, topped the under-18 girls’ rankings. The best under-16 boys and girls came from Sutton Park School. Competitors from as far away as Skibbereen in Cork travelled to the event.

 Carlow mentor Kathryn Wall and Dominican College, Griffith Avenue in Dublin, received special presentations.

All-Ireland Indoor Rowing Blitz, Trinity College (Selected Results; winners)

Boys

Open/Club: Salesian One, Limerick 6 min 22.4.

Under-16: Sutton Park School 6:37.8.

Girls

Open/Club: Laurel Hill 6:43.5

Under-16: Sutton Park School 8:03.1

 

Published in Rowing

#Festivals - Limerick becomes a mecca for watersport enthusiasts this May Bank Holiday weekend for the city’s Riverfest 2017, which kicks off today (Friday 28 April).

Highlights of the city’s premier summer maritime festival include the Riverfest BBQ Competition, the Riverfestival village in Arthur’s Quay Park, the Barringtons Hospital Great Limerick Run, a spectacular fireworks display.

At the centre of it all is the Maldron Hotel Riverfest on the Shannon, featuring wakeboarding with Irish champion David O Caoimh and pro jetboarders Scotty Knemeyer and Bo Krook, as well as the River Shannon Zipline between Arthur’s Quay and Honan’s Quay for more thrill-seeking visitors.

Exciting and skilful displays by Limerick Marine Search and Rescue, the Defence Forces, Foynes Yacht Club, Limerick’s numerous rowing clubs and yachting and sailability groups will mean all eyes will be firmly focused on the water.

For full details of the festival lineup visit the official website HERE.

And don’t forget the Dublin Port Riverfest that returns for the June Bank Holiday, as previously reported on Afloat.ie.

Published in Maritime Festivals
Page 1 of 6

Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) - FAQS

Marine protected areas (MPAs) are geographically defined maritime areas where human activities are managed to protect important natural or cultural resources. In addition to conserving marine species and habitats, MPAs can support maritime economic activity and reduce the effects of climate change and ocean acidification.

MPAs can be found across a range of marine habitats, from the open ocean to coastal areas, intertidal zones, bays and estuaries. Marine protected areas are defined areas where human activities are managed to protect important natural or cultural resources.

The world's first MPA is said to have been the Fort Jefferson National Monument in Florida, North America, which covered 18,850 hectares of sea and 35 hectares of coastal land. This location was designated in 1935, but the main drive for MPAs came much later. The current global movement can be traced to the first World Congress on National Parks in 1962, and initiation in 1976 of a process to deliver exclusive rights to sovereign states over waters up to 200 nautical miles out then began to provide new focus

The Rio ‘Earth Summit’ on climate change in 1992 saw a global MPA area target of 10% by the 2010 deadline. When this was not met, an “Aichi target 11” was set requiring 10% coverage by 2020. There has been repeated efforts since then to tighten up MPA requirements.

Marae Moana is a multiple-use marine protected area created on July 13th 2017 by the government of the Cook islands in the south Pacific, north- east of New Zealand. The area extends across over 1.9 million square kilometres. However, In September 2019, Jacqueline Evans, a prominent marine biologist and Goldman environmental award winner who was openly critical of the government's plans for seabed mining, was replaced as director of the park by the Cook Islands prime minister’s office. The move attracted local media criticism, as Evans was responsible for developing the Marae Moana policy and the Marae Moana Act, She had worked on raising funding for the park, expanding policy and regulations and developing a plan that designates permitted areas for industrial activities.

Criteria for identifying and selecting MPAs depends on the overall objective or direction of the programme identified by the coastal state. For example, if the objective is to safeguard ecological habitats, the criteria will emphasise habitat diversity and the unique nature of the particular area.

Permanence of MPAs can vary internationally. Some are established under legislative action or under a different regulatory mechanism to exist permanently into the future. Others are intended to last only a few months or years.

Yes, Ireland has MPA cover in about 2.13 per cent of our waters. Although much of Ireland’s marine environment is regarded as in “generally good condition”, according to an expert group report for Government published in January 2021, it says that biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation are of “wide concern due to increasing pressures such as overexploitation, habitat loss, pollution, and climate change”.

The Government has set a target of 30 per cent MPA coverage by 2030, and moves are already being made in that direction. However, environmentalists are dubious, pointing out that a previous target of ten per cent by 2020 was not met.

Conservation and sustainable management of the marine environment has been mandated by a number of international agreements and legal obligations, as an expert group report to government has pointed out. There are specific requirements for area-based protection in the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD), the OSPAR Convention, the UN Convention on Biological Diversity and the UN Sustainable Development Goals. 

Yes, the Marine Strategy Framework directive (2008/56/EC) required member states to put measures in place to achieve or maintain good environmental status in their waters by 2020. Under the directive a coherent and representative network of MPAs had to be created by 2016.

Ireland was about halfway up the EU table in designating protected areas under existing habitats and bird directives in a comparison published by the European Commission in 2009. However, the Fair Seas campaign, an environmental coalition formed in 2022, points out that Ireland is “lagging behind “ even our closest neighbours, such as Scotland which has 37 per cent. The Fair Seas campaign wants at least 10 per cent of Irish waters to be designated as “fully protected” by 2025, and “at least” 30 per cent by 2030.

Nearly a quarter of Britain’s territorial waters are covered by MPAs, set up to protect vital ecosystems and species. However, a conservation NGO, Oceana, said that analysis of fishing vessel tracking data published in The Guardian in October 2020 found that more than 97% of British MPAs created to safeguard ocean habitats, are being dredged and bottom trawled. 

There’s the rub. Currently, there is no definition of an MPA in Irish law, and environment protections under the Wildlife Acts only apply to the foreshore.

Current protection in marine areas beyond 12 nautical miles is limited to measures taken under the EU Birds and Habitats Directives or the OSPAR Convention. This means that habitats and species that are not listed in the EU Directives, but which may be locally, nationally or internationally important, cannot currently be afforded the necessary protection

Yes. In late March 2022, Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien said that the Government had begun developing “stand-alone legislation” to enable identification, designation and management of MPAs to meet Ireland’s national and international commitments.

Yes. Environmental groups are not happy, as they have pointed out that legislation on marine planning took precedence over legislation on MPAs, due to the push to develop offshore renewable energy.

No, but some activities may be banned or restricted. Extraction is the main activity affected as in oil and gas activities; mining; dumping; and bottom trawling

The Government’s expert group report noted that MPA designations are likely to have the greatest influence on the “capture fisheries, marine tourism and aquaculture sectors”. It said research suggests that the net impacts on fisheries could ultimately be either positive or negative and will depend on the type of fishery involved and a wide array of other factors.

The same report noted that marine tourism and recreation sector can substantially benefit from MPA designation. However, it said that the “magnitude of the benefits” will depend to a large extent on the location of the MPA sites within the network and the management measures put in place.

© Afloat 2022