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‘Public Participation Will Be Key’ to Success of Marine Spatial Planning Laws Says Coastwatch as Annual Irish Coastal Survey Continues

3rd October 2021
Young Coastwatch volunteers surveying the seashore on the Beara Peninsula
Young Coastwatch volunteers surveying the seashore on the Beara Peninsula Credit: Coastwatch/Facebook

Coastwatch has welcomed the promise of greater protections for sensitive maritime areas in the Marine Spatial Planning Bill as it continues its annual shoreline survey.

As reported in The Irish Times, the environmental group’s coordinator Karin Dubsky said “public participation will be an integral part” of the process when the bill, which was published last month, passes into law.

Hundreds of volunteers are already deep into the four-week survey of Ireland’s 7,500km coastline, which continues till Friday 15 October.

This year Coastwatch is making a special appeal for farmers and coastal landowners to get involved to record the status of seaside habitats.

“Most of Ireland’s of shore is owned by farmers, yet we rarely hear how coastal farmers and how they are dealing with climate change and sea level rise,” Cork Coastwatch coordinator Bernie Connolly said.

The Irish Times has more on the story HERE.

MacDara Conroy

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MacDara Conroy

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MacDara Conroy is a contributor covering all things on the water, from boating and wildlife to science and business

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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.