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Fair Seas Coalition To Hold Rally Outside Dail Over MPA Legislation Delay

25th September 2024
The Fair Seas Coalition Rally Outside the Dail is due to start at 12 midday on Wednesday, September 25th, with speeches at 1300 until 1400.
The Fair Seas Coalition Rally Outside the Dail is due to start at 12 midday on Wednesday, September 25th, with speeches at 1300 until 1400

The Fair Seas coalition and other environmental campaigners say they are holding a rally outside the Dáil today in protest over lack of progress on the legislation for marine protected areas (MPAs).

The coalition says it is vital that the Irish government develops strong and ambitious legislation allowing for 30% of Irish waters to be protected within MPAs, including strictly protecting 10% of Irish waters to allow life in our ocean to not only survive but recover and thrive.

Representatives of Fair Seas will be joined by Coastwatch, Flossie and the Beach Cleaners and they promise a host of participants wearing sea creature costumes.

The rally is due to start at 12 midday on Wednesday, September 25th, with speeches at 1300 until 1400.

The coalition of Ireland’s leading environmental non-governmental organisations (eNGOs) and environmental networks is determined to make its voice heard as the clock ticks down to the end of this Dáil, and will be assisted today by a collection of volunteers dressed as hard-to-miss colourful sea creatures.

The MPA legislation is aimed at legally protecting areas of seas and coastline from activities that damage the habitats, wildlife and natural processes that occur there. Despite repeated pledges from the government, progress on the bill’s publication has been stalled since early last year.

Fair Seas Coordinator Dr Donal Griffin says there is a high level of concern among campaigners as the Dáil enters its final months: “We’ve come to the gates of Leinster House today to remind politicians that MPA legislation is a win-win concept. It offers ecological, economical and societal benefits and can even positively impact climate concerns. We’ve heard positive comments from politicians recently but now we need to see those backed up by action in the next six months. Marine life around Ireland needs proper protection and it can’t afford to wait any longer”.

Today’s rally will also feature speeches and representatives from Coastwatch, Flossie and the Beach Cleaners, Author Easkey Britton and a host of people in colourful sea creature costumes, who are all determined to make their concerns heard.

Jack O’Donovan Trá is the Communications Officer at Fair Seas: “We in Fair Seas have been doing our best to highlight concerns about declines in marine life around Ireland and the lack of engagement with coastal communities, but strong laws are crucial to having a lasting and effective impact. The MPA Bill is vital to help Ireland meet its international obligations to conserve at least 30% of the planet’s ocean by 2030 in a meaningful way, but most importantly it has the opportunity to place Ireland's coastal communities at its core, allowing for the recovery of wildlife and fish stocks and the revitalisation of our coastal towns and villages. We may have brought wetsuits, surfboards and colourful costumes to the gates of Dáil Éireann to help get our point across but the reality of the situation is very serious”.

Published in Marine Planning
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Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) - FAQS

Marine protected areas (MPAs) are geographically defined maritime areas where human activities are managed to protect important natural or cultural resources. In addition to conserving marine species and habitats, MPAs can support maritime economic activity and reduce the effects of climate change and ocean acidification.

MPAs can be found across a range of marine habitats, from the open ocean to coastal areas, intertidal zones, bays and estuaries. Marine protected areas are defined areas where human activities are managed to protect important natural or cultural resources.

The world's first MPA is said to have been the Fort Jefferson National Monument in Florida, North America, which covered 18,850 hectares of sea and 35 hectares of coastal land. This location was designated in 1935, but the main drive for MPAs came much later. The current global movement can be traced to the first World Congress on National Parks in 1962, and initiation in 1976 of a process to deliver exclusive rights to sovereign states over waters up to 200 nautical miles out then began to provide new focus

The Rio ‘Earth Summit’ on climate change in 1992 saw a global MPA area target of 10% by the 2010 deadline. When this was not met, an “Aichi target 11” was set requiring 10% coverage by 2020. There has been repeated efforts since then to tighten up MPA requirements.

Marae Moana is a multiple-use marine protected area created on July 13th 2017 by the government of the Cook islands in the south Pacific, north- east of New Zealand. The area extends across over 1.9 million square kilometres. However, In September 2019, Jacqueline Evans, a prominent marine biologist and Goldman environmental award winner who was openly critical of the government's plans for seabed mining, was replaced as director of the park by the Cook Islands prime minister’s office. The move attracted local media criticism, as Evans was responsible for developing the Marae Moana policy and the Marae Moana Act, She had worked on raising funding for the park, expanding policy and regulations and developing a plan that designates permitted areas for industrial activities.

Criteria for identifying and selecting MPAs depends on the overall objective or direction of the programme identified by the coastal state. For example, if the objective is to safeguard ecological habitats, the criteria will emphasise habitat diversity and the unique nature of the particular area.

Permanence of MPAs can vary internationally. Some are established under legislative action or under a different regulatory mechanism to exist permanently into the future. Others are intended to last only a few months or years.

Yes, Ireland has MPA cover in about 2.13 per cent of our waters. Although much of Ireland’s marine environment is regarded as in “generally good condition”, according to an expert group report for Government published in January 2021, it says that biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation are of “wide concern due to increasing pressures such as overexploitation, habitat loss, pollution, and climate change”.

The Government has set a target of 30 per cent MPA coverage by 2030, and moves are already being made in that direction. However, environmentalists are dubious, pointing out that a previous target of ten per cent by 2020 was not met.

Conservation and sustainable management of the marine environment has been mandated by a number of international agreements and legal obligations, as an expert group report to government has pointed out. There are specific requirements for area-based protection in the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD), the OSPAR Convention, the UN Convention on Biological Diversity and the UN Sustainable Development Goals. 

Yes, the Marine Strategy Framework directive (2008/56/EC) required member states to put measures in place to achieve or maintain good environmental status in their waters by 2020. Under the directive a coherent and representative network of MPAs had to be created by 2016.

Ireland was about halfway up the EU table in designating protected areas under existing habitats and bird directives in a comparison published by the European Commission in 2009. However, the Fair Seas campaign, an environmental coalition formed in 2022, points out that Ireland is “lagging behind “ even our closest neighbours, such as Scotland which has 37 per cent. The Fair Seas campaign wants at least 10 per cent of Irish waters to be designated as “fully protected” by 2025, and “at least” 30 per cent by 2030.

Nearly a quarter of Britain’s territorial waters are covered by MPAs, set up to protect vital ecosystems and species. However, a conservation NGO, Oceana, said that analysis of fishing vessel tracking data published in The Guardian in October 2020 found that more than 97% of British MPAs created to safeguard ocean habitats, are being dredged and bottom trawled. 

There’s the rub. Currently, there is no definition of an MPA in Irish law, and environment protections under the Wildlife Acts only apply to the foreshore.

Current protection in marine areas beyond 12 nautical miles is limited to measures taken under the EU Birds and Habitats Directives or the OSPAR Convention. This means that habitats and species that are not listed in the EU Directives, but which may be locally, nationally or internationally important, cannot currently be afforded the necessary protection

Yes. In late March 2022, Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien said that the Government had begun developing “stand-alone legislation” to enable identification, designation and management of MPAs to meet Ireland’s national and international commitments.

Yes. Environmental groups are not happy, as they have pointed out that legislation on marine planning took precedence over legislation on MPAs, due to the push to develop offshore renewable energy.

No, but some activities may be banned or restricted. Extraction is the main activity affected as in oil and gas activities; mining; dumping; and bottom trawling

The Government’s expert group report noted that MPA designations are likely to have the greatest influence on the “capture fisheries, marine tourism and aquaculture sectors”. It said research suggests that the net impacts on fisheries could ultimately be either positive or negative and will depend on the type of fishery involved and a wide array of other factors.

The same report noted that marine tourism and recreation sector can substantially benefit from MPA designation. However, it said that the “magnitude of the benefits” will depend to a large extent on the location of the MPA sites within the network and the management measures put in place.

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