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Displaying items by tag: Maritime History

Hello and welcome aboard this week’ s edition of your maritime programme, the one thousand four hundredth edition of Seascapes ...this week we talk to Dr Deirdre Ni Conghaile of NUI Galway one of the speakers at last weekend’s  Conference in University College Cork ; we congratulate yachtsman and offshore sailor Mark Light on being appointed as Race Director of the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race ; Grainne McPolin on the Oyster Season in Tralee Bay and we hear the winning entries in the Write By the Sea Literary Festival held in Kilmore Quay earlier this year with “The Vigil” by Imelda Carroll of Wexford and “My Friend Never Saw the Sea” by Mary Kavanagh from Wicklow ....music from Jerry Early and “I’ll Go” marking the loss of lives to the sea off Arranmore Island in Donegal in 1940 and do make a note not to miss “Atlantic “ the excellent documentary from Richie O Donnell which is being screened this coming week on RTE One television on Thursday next 8th of December @ a quarter past ten.................First this week to Grainne McPolin who went aboard Solitaire in Tralee Bay a few weeks ago for Seascapes at the start of the Oyster Season ......

Grainne McPolin on board the Solitaire at the start of this years Oyster season ......

Former Derry-Londonderry skipper and offshore sailor Mark Light, 45, has been appointed Race Director of the unique Clipper Round the World Yacht Race...

An experienced sailor with many ocean crossings and over 120,000 nautical miles to his name, Mark competed in the Clipper 2011-12 Race as Skipper of the Derry-Londonderry team before becoming Deputy Race Director in 2012. With four years’ experience assisting the race planning, he is now looking forward to stepping up to the lead role, one of the most challenging that exists in global sailing.

Bird Watch Ireland launched a new report “ Life on the Edge “ Seabirds and fisheries in Irish waters .....last Friday which explores the interactions between fisheries and seabirds including the knock-on effects of food shortages on seabird breeding success; the impacts of seabird by catch and the opportunities to implement measures which will directly benefit seabirds.

A task force of is to be set up immediately to protect the Curlew, one of Ireland's most threatened breeding bird species. This was one of the main actions which arose out of the Curlew in Crisis workshop, which took place in Co. Westmeath in November. The workshop brought together almost 100 scientists and conservationists from across Ireland and the UK to discuss the crisis facing breeding Curlew in Ireland. Results from a survey funded by the National Parks and Wildlife Service over the last two years show that just 130 breeding pairs of this bird remain in the Republic of Ireland and that the species is facing extinction here within the next 10 years if emergency action is not taken. You can download a podcast of last week’s edition of Seascapes featuring Jim Wilson on the plight of the curlew...

Indeed I was on the banks of Lough Lein at the Lake Hotel in Killarney last weekend in magnificent weather and the range of bird life was wonderful including a resident curlew amongst the many other species....

Last weekend at the Maritime History Conference in University College Cork we met up with one of the speakers - musician, producer, broadcaster, writer and Research Associate, Digital Cultures Initiative, Moore Institute, at NUI Galway …… Dr Deirdre Ni Conghaile of NUI Galway .....we talked about her description of fishermen and coal miners being kindred spirits ......

Dr Deirdre Ni Conghaile , Research Associate , Digital Cultures Initiative, Moore Institute , NUI Galway ......as Deirdre mentioned ... “Atlantic “ is the new feature documentary from Risteard O’Domhnaill the film maker who made The Pipe . Narrated by Emmy Award-winning actor Brendan Gleeson, the film explores ocean resource mismanagement across Ireland, Norway and Newfoundland . When traditional fishing communities meet big oil and overfishing, what does the future hold ? Not to be missed......thats “Atlantic “ the excellent documentary from Richie O Donnell which is being screened this coming week on RTE One television on Thursday next 8th of December @ 10.15pm .

An extract from “I’ll Go” Composed by Jerry Early .....Remembering Arranmore islanders who lost their lives at sea in 1940 in the great loss of life at sea off the coast of one of our most beautiful offshore islands......you can download “I’ll Go” on itunes and read more on the Seascapes webpage.......

Next here on Seascapes to the winners of the inaugural Write By the Sea writing competition who are Imelda Carroll from Wexford for her prose piece, The Vigil, and Mary Kavanagh from Wicklow for her poem, My Friend Never Saw the Sea.”

Lucy Moore, Chairperson of the Write By The Sea organising committee, says “the judges, renowned writers, Billy Roche, Cat Hogan and Peter Murphy, were impressed with the high calibre of this year’s entries.......... So last week we invited Imelda and Mary to join us in the Seascapes studio to read their winning entries..first to Mary Kavanagh from Wicklow and her poem ...“My Friend Never Saw the Sea”

From Mary Kavanagh who is a keen radio fan to Imelda Carroll of Wexford who won the “Write By the Sea” literary festival in the short story category with her entry “The Vigil” ..

That’s it for this week here on your maritime programme....on the sound desk this week Bryan Fitzpatrick, until next Friday night tight lines and fair sailing”

Published in Seascapes

Stories that abound in the West of Ireland concerning German U- boats refuelling and resupplying, or having pints in local pubs during World War Two appear to be "fanciful myths" the second annual Irish Maritime History Conference has been told writes Tom Mac Sweeney.  The conference is being held this weekend at UCC. Delivering a paper on German espionage initiated by sea, Sam Moore from Sligo IT said there, in reality, been only three successful U-boat landings of German agents, two in Kerry and one in Sligo and only one agent had been even partially successful in his mission.

The conference heard from Jean Prendergast, wo has been researching Cork and the Great War that 70 Cork sailors were decorated for bravery during WW1.

Irish Maritime History Conference

Also at the conference today, tributes have been paid to Dun Laoghaire's long-time maritime figure and campaigner Dr.John de Courcy Ireland at the national maritime history conference in Cork.

Dr. John Mulqueen from Trinity College said he had spent a lifetime highlighting the potential of the sea as a natural resource.

Published in Historic Boats
The 2010/2011 'Follow The Fleet' Schools Essay Competition is open to all schools that are registered to take part in the Follow the Fleet project. Schools can register details by logging onto www.followthefleet.ie where a username and password will be provided.
The deadline for entries for this year's Follow The Fleet Schools Essay Competition is Thursday 31st March. The essay competition is centred around three key themes: Maritime History, Maritime Trading In Ireland –Life of a Container and Maritime Technology and the Master Mariner.

Theme 1. Maritime History

Commodore John Barry- Father of the American Navy

The Adventures of Gráinne Mhaol

Admiral Francis Beaufort's Scale

Write an historical essay on one of these famous Irish mariners and their journeys of discovery and adventure. You can include pictures or photos if choosing this category to support your essay. The pictures or photos will need to include elements of geographical representation and can include pictures of vessels, land marks, vegetation or animals pertinent to the essay.

Theme 2. Maritime Trading in Ireland –Life of a Container

An essay on a trade route from or to Ireland and progress that a container carried on a cargo ship will make. You will need to describe the size of container, what cargo it will carry, the type of ship it will travel on, the port it will depart from and the port it will go to and the places the ship may call in-between. The nominated trade routes are:

Ireland – Norway.

Ireland – Italy.

Ireland- France.

You can include pictures or photos if choosing this category to support your essay. The pictures or photos will need to include elements of geographical representation of the two countries and can include pictures / photos of land marks or cargo pertinent to the Journey.

Theme 3. Technology and the Master Mariner.

An essay on how technology helps the working life of a ships captain. You can include details on the types of technology used aboard ship including:

Telecommunications on Ships

Navigating Ships and Technology

Technology & Safety at sea

Entrants can include pictures or photos if choosing this category to support your essay. The pictures or photos will need to be representative of the technology used on board ship.

You are free to choose an essay title from any of the 3 themes listed above. For further information about essay guidelines, entry forms and competition details and rules they can be found HERE

Published in Ports & Shipping

The Irish Maritime Development Office (IMDO) has announced details for the 2010/11 Follow the Fleet Schools Essay Competition. To enter the competition, schools are invited to log onto http://www.followthefleet.ie to register. Each school will be provided with a username and password.

This year the Follow the Fleet essay competition is centred on three themes: Maritime History, Maritime Trading in Ireland –Life of a Container and Technology and the Master Mariner. Within each theme there is a choice of three essay titles. You are free to choose an essay title from any of the themes listed.

To see the full list of essay titles, essay guidelines, entry forms,competition details and rules are please logon to http://www.imdo.ie/followthefleet/news.asp

Published in Ports & Shipping

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.

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