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Coastal Development in Ireland
Blue Flag - Kinsale Marina has been awarded the environmental Blue Flag for 2020
Kinsale Yacht Club has been awarded the environmental Blue Flag for 2020. The 2020 results were announced today by An Taisce. The marinas and beaches who achieved the accolade must adhere to specific criteria related to water quality, information provision,…
Wicklow Port based tug AMS Retriever with a split hopper-barge B302 offshore of Kilmore Quay on the south Wexford coast to where the small craft arrived yesterday afternoon from The Netherlands to begin a dredging project of the harbour shared by trawlers and boats from the local marina.  On the horizon are the Saltees Islands.
A Wicklow Port based tug has completed a six day towage operation from Rotterdam, The Netherlands when it arrived off the coast of Kilmore Quay in Co. Wexford yesterday afternoon, writes Jehan Ashmore. The 18.5 tonnes bollard pull AMS Retriever…
Forty Foot on Dublin Bay was classified as excellent. Also above Afloat adds is the backdrop of Dun Loaghaire Harbour's East Pier lighthouse.
Beaches and the quality of bathing waters in Ireland is continuing to improve, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. EPA director Dr Micheál Lehane said local authorities must remain vigilant to ensure public health was protected and continue to identify…
Zenith’s oil terminal in Bantry Bay
A small oil terminal in Bantry Bay has become an unlikely magnet for US tankers searching for places to store crude as supply outstrips demand in the coronavirus pandemic. In the last month, as gCaptain reports via Bloomberg, the terminal…
The offshore wind projects would further the objectives of the Climate Action Plan
Seven offshore renewable energy projects have been designated as ‘Relevant Projects’ by the Ministers for Urban Development and Climate Action and approved for transition to the upcoming new marine planing regime. These are offshore wind projects that either applied for…
Kinsale Harbour is one of 58 harbours and slipways that will benefit from the new package for local authority works
Marine Michael Creed has today (Tuesday 19 May) announced details of a €3.1m package to assist 10 coastal local authorities in 58 development and repair projects on harbours and slipways owned by them. The package provides funding for maintenance and…
One of the guest musicians is renowned violinist Colm Mac Con Iomaire
Some people are climbing Everest, some tackling Hadrian’s Wall, some circumnavigating Ireland as four Dun Laoghaire sailors are doing in aid of the RNLI, all virtually, of course. However, sailors and coastal communities are being invited to participate in a land…
The private estate on Lambay Island has hosted a colony of red-necked wallabies since the 1950s
The Irish Mirror reports on the discovery of a dead wallaby on Malahide Strand in north Co Dublin earlier this week. It’s believed the animal died after falling off a cliff on Lambay Island, which has had a colony of…
The Coastworker is 19.5m long with two Caterpillar engines and has a maximum speed of 11 knots
Bangor Marina on Belfast Lough may be closed but the Harbour is certainly not out of bounds to commercial traffic and the 120-ton displacement tug Coastworker arrived yesterday afternoon. She will tow the modular barge currently berthed alongside the commercial…
'Ghost Ship' - Alta AFLOAT adds shows the starboard side of the cargoship which earlier this year went aground on the Cork coastline close to Ballycotton
Maritime salvage experts internationally say it could cost upwards of €10m to salvage the (cargoship) MV Alta. The 'ghost ship' washed ashore off the Cork coast earlier this year. The Receiver of Wreck said it was still trying to establish…
Professor Dearbháile Morris, School of Medicine, NUI Galway
More than 90% of samples taken from Irish rivers show the presence of E. coli, according to a new study from NUI Galway. And researchers found that the toxic bacteria was also present in bathing waters which pass muster with…
Baltimore in West Cork pictured on a normal sunny evening in summer time
Baltimore Resident Donna McCarthy was angered by Afloat's article West Cork Sailing Dreamtime – Some Day, Summer will Come Again Dear Editor, This is my first time writing to you, though I enjoy reading the articles in Afloat on a regular…
With a moon like this, anything can happen……spooky thoughts are evoked by Tuesday’s super-moon over Balscadden Bay in Howth at a location of exceptional literary associations
We’ll begin by making it clear that this remarkable image of Tuesday night’s super-moon over Balscadden Bay in Howth was taken at 2041hrs by a Howth resident within the prescribed two kilometres of her residence, using a carbon-neutral means of…
Irish Dredging which is a a subsidiary of Royal Boskalis Westminster nv, has the use of their trailing suction hopper dredger Shoalway which is currently conducting operations on the Waterford Estuary.
A maintenance dredging campaign has begun in recent days at the Port of Waterford where activities will involve the waters of Duncannon Bar, Cheekpoint, and at the port's main terminal at Belview, writes Jehan Ashmore Prior to the operations at…
Wet wipes and disposable household wipes must be binned and not flushed
Improper disposal of wet wipes could cause the coronavirus to spread via Ireland’s recreational waters, it’s being claimed. The Green News reports on Coastwatch Ireland’s warning over the use of wet wipes, which are linked to around 90% of wastewater…
The Trump International Golf Links & Hotel in Doonbeg
The Doonbeg golf resort owned by US President Donald Trump has been refused permission to build a ‘sea wall’ of coastal defences, as RTÉ News reports. An Bord Pleanála’s decision published on Wednesday (18 March) said planners were not satisfied…

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.