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Coastal Development in Ireland
Kinsale Harbour in West Cork. The Port is to get a new €1.2m fisherman's pontoon under Brexit adjustment funding announced by Government
Funds to help regions 'adjust' to Brexit will be used to fund major improvements at 14 harbours across West Cork it was announced earlier this week. As Afloat reported earlier, the grant is the largest ever funding announcement of its…
Celebrating the milestone ‘sod turning’ of the Salmon Weir Pedestrian and Cycle Bridge were (L to R) Colm Ó Ríordáin, Senior Executive Engineer, Galway City Council, Patrick Greene, Director of Services, Galway City Council, Uinsinn Finn, Senior Engineer, Galway City Council; Brendan McGrath, Chief Executive of Galway City Council; John Pentony, Jons Civil Engineering Company; Minister of State, Department of Transport, Hildegarde Naughton, TD; Kealan Bolton, Jons Civil Engineering Company; Mayor of Galway City, Councillor Colette Connolly; John Rooney, National Transport Authority; Martin Jennings, Atkins Ireland; and David Minton, Director, NWRA
The first sod has been turned on constructing a new pedestrian and cycleway across the river Corrib – the first new bridge over the Atlantic coast river in over 30 years. The new Salmon Weir crossing will “draw pedestrians and…
The SOS Bearna delegation handing in a petition to Galway County Hall
Community group SOS Bearna has welcomed a decision by Galway county councillors to overturn a decision to permit the building to within just 15 metres of the shoreline. A setback of 30 metres from the shore has been reaffirmed for…
A new partnership between Rosslare and Dunkirk is to boost both regions and will include the promotion of cross-tourism attractiveness between the Irish and French ports
Wexford People reports of a new alliance between Rosslare and Dunkirk which is set to boost the economic, social, educational and cultural development of each region and promote cross-tourism attractiveness between the Irish and French ports. First mooted in late…
The Kinsale Area gas fields are located in the Celtic Sea, approximately 40km to 70km off the south coast of County Cork
May 10 has been set as the start date for decommissioning works on the subsea structure in the Kinsale and Seven Heads Gas Fields on the South Coast. The Kinsale Energy company which will undertake the work has told the…
Diving duck species have recorded the greatest decline across 97 lakes, rivers and coastal estuaries according to a new wetland survey. 15 waterbird species are “stable or increasing”, while 20 species are declining, Birdwatch Ireland reports. The Irish Wetland Bird…
Silting has filled up Sligo Port but dredging not viable says report. The scene above AFLOAT adds is taken from the bridge of Ceg Cosmos, a general cargo when on the approaches to the north-west harbour which is the only port located between Galway and Derry.  The digger on the hold deck hatch cover is used for handling cargoes such as round timber (logs).
There are fears for the future of Sligo harbour (a commercial port) after it was revealed on Monday that it is full of sludge which would cost millions of euro to clear, money that’s not available and dredging is not…
RCC Faire
Revenue’s plans to acquire two new patrol vessels will boost the State’s coastal and offshore search-and-rescue capabilities, it’s been claimed. As previously reported on Afloat.ie, the two new ships will replace Revenue’s existing cutters and new used to expand its…
Boats alongside the Old Pier at Keelbeg in Union Hall, West Cork
Following recommendations from an independent inspection of the Old Pier at Keelbeg in Union Hall, Cork County Council says that “in order to improve safety” it is obliged to close the pier to public access. The move has been met…
The Sand Quay refurbishment at Monkstown Bay is a work in progress and there has been a thumbs up for the new surface that replaces the grass. 
Monkstown Bay boaters in Cork Harbour got a pre-season boost with a general tidying up of the town's Sand Quay and boat park extensively used by Monkstown Bay Sailing Club (MBSC). The improvements come as the Cork Lower Harbour Main…
Diver video is recorded to monitor the seagrass condition around the entire circumference of new eco-friendly moorings on Strangford Lough
At the end of March, the Strangford and Lecale Partnership started a new pilot study of Advanced Mooring Systems in Strangford Lough. It is the first study of its kind in Northern Ireland, and these eco-friendly moorings will avoid or…
Waves crash into the Dun Laoghaire shoreline in a winter storm on Dublin Bay
East Cork, Waterford, Galway and the Shannon Estuary will be the first to bear the brunt of an “alarming and startling” rise in sea levels, a TD has warned. As the Irish Examiner reports, David Stanton (Cork East) expressed his…
Corncrake
Coastal and island locations in and off Donegal, Mayo and Galway will be involved in the Government’s new €5.9m EU-funded LIFE project aimed at saving the corncrake. The project, which is overseen by the Department of Housing, Local Government and…
File image of the fishing fleet at Howth Harbour in Co Dublin
Marine Minister Charlie McConalogue has announced a new Brexit mitigation scheme to promote the blue economy and to be delivered through the seven Fisheries Local Action Groups (FLAGs). Announcing the scheme in his opening address at the Irish Skipper Expo…
The SOS Bearna delegation handing in a petition to Galway County Hall
When former president Mary Robinson was speaking about the horrific invasion of Ukraine on RTE’s Late Late Show last week, she reminded us that climate change hasn’t gone away. SOS Bearna is the name of a community group in Galway…
The Alta's bow and stern sections completely separated, with other large pieces of its hull strewn across the rocks nearby. The freighter had grounded in Ballyandreane in Ballycotton,  east Cork on February 16, 2020.
On the Cork coastline a modern-day "ghost ship" which washed up on rocks in 2020, has split in two after being repeatedly battered during successive storm periods this year. The MV Alta was grounded in Ballyandreane in Ballycotton, east Cork,…

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.