Sensitive habitats such as the Kish Bank off the coast of Dublin and Wicklow have no protection in spite of promised legislation, the Irish Wildlife Trust (IWT) has said.
The NGO has welcomed the announcement by Minister of State for Heritage Malcolm Noonan that a large new special protection area (SPA) for birds is to be designated in the north-west Irish Sea.
“SPAs are designated under existing legislation for the protection of birds and are a form of marine protected area (MPA),” the IWT said in a statement.
“ The announcement brings the coverage of our marine environment falling within designated areas for nature to nearly 10%,” the IWT said.
“The new designation, along with other recent announcements, are vitally important in ensuring that future developments do not result in harm to these sensitive places,” it said.
“ However, in nearly all instances, harmful activities, particularly from fishing, are already underway. If MPAs are to be effective, they must control the fishing,” it said.
The IWT said it was calling on Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue, to “accelerate the process of carrying out fisheries assessments in existing MPAs in line with goals to protect and restore biodiversity”.
“creating new MPAs is a critical step in the protection of our seas”
“In particular, this means removing particularly harmful activities such as dredging, bottom trawling or mid-water trawling from these areas,” it said.
“Earlier this year, the European Commission called for the removal of bottom-towed fishing gear from all MPAs and asked that member states, including Ireland, produce a plan for the ending of these practices in existing MPAs by next March,” it said.
IWT campaign officer Pádraic Fogarty said that “creating new MPAs is a critical step in the protection of our seas”.
“They are the foundations for long-term management, but without the management and especially the removal of particularly harmful fishing practices, the designations are meaningless,”he said.
The Government has set a target of protecting 30% of Irish seas by 2030.