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The Marine Institute's specialist research library, Oceanus with has over 5,000 books relating to marine, natural and life sciences is now open online. The institute's extensive collection of scientific literature relating to marine and freshwater resources is available to browse in advance of visiting the library in person to access the material.

Some rare items date back over one hundred years and in the collection which includes contributions from the Fisheries Branch until the Fisheries Research Centre moved to Abbotstown in the 1970s and was incorporated into the Marine Institute in January 1996. The library has built up a fine collection of resource material to support and assist research, development and innovation in the marine sector.

"The foundations of the Marine Institute Library collection began with materials acquired by the Fisheries Branch of the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction for Ireland, which was established in 1899," said Dr. Peter Heffernan, Chief Executive of the Marine Institute.

According to Anne Wilkinson, the Institute's Library and Information Manager, "Our unique archive material, dating from c. 1890, is an important element of this collection. The archive includes scientific reports, books and publications prepared by Irish and international marine researchers, including copies of Fishery Ireland Acts dating from the late 1800s and Reports of the Inspectors of Irish Fisheries and Sea and Inland Fisheries Ireland from the same period."

The Library archive has a microfiche reader to facilitate access to some of this material. In addition there are many research reports prepared by Marine Institute scientists and marine related publications issued by the EU, the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), and the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO).

To go online to the libray click this link here  

For an appointment at the Oceanus Library which is open to the public you can contact the library Tel: (091) 38700 or email: [email protected]. The Marine Institute headquarters is located at Rinville, Oranmore, Co. Galway.

Published in Marine Science

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.