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Displaying items by tag: Junior Team

#Rowing: Margaret Cremen and Aoife Casey have been chosen to represent Ireland at the World Junior Championships in August in Lithuania. The junior double, which took silver at the European Junior Rowing Championships in Germany last month, tops the list of selections for the big events for underage rowers.

Four crews have been chosen for the Coupe de la Jeunesse (one, the junior men’s double provisional on their performance at Cork Regatta). A big junior team has also been named for the Home Internationals, which will be held in Scotland in July.

 

Junior Team Selections 2017
The following junior teams have been selected to race at international regattas this coming summer. This list will be finalised after Cork Regatta. (Details can be found at the end of this document).
Junior World Championships (Trakai, Lithuania, August 2-6)
JW2x
Margaret Cremen (Lee Rowing Club)
Aoife Casey (Skibbereen RC) Coach: Dan Buckley (Lee RC)
(Eleanor Casey, Skibbereen RC will travel with the crew as chaperone).
Coupe de la Jeunesse (Hazewinkel, Belgium, July 29-30)
JM4x-
Barry O'Flynn (Cork BC)
Matt Dundon (Clonmel RC)
Jack Keating (Carlow RC)
James Quinlan (Castleconnell BC) Coach: Ray Morrison (Fermoy RC)
JM2x (Provisional based on performance at Cork Regatta)
Oisin Clune (Three Castles)
Rory Quinn (Three Castles)
JW2-
Ellie O' Reilly (Fermoy)
Gill McGirr (Fermoy) Coach: John Walsh (St Joseph's RC)
JM4-
Nathan Timoney (Enniskillen)
Barry Connolly (Cork BC)
Ross Corrigan (Enniskillen)
Aaron Johnston (Enniskillen) Coach: John Walsh (St Joseph's RC)
Home International (Strathclyde, Scotland, July 22)
Junior Women - Sweep Team (Full Team) JW 4+
Siobhan Maxwell (Commercial) Aishling Keogh (Commercial) Mia Kovacs (Shandon)
Chelsey Minehane (Shandon) Cox: Vicky Hanlon (Cork BC)
JW4-
Mia Jane Elliot (Enniskillen) Zoe McCutcheon (Enniskillen) Caitlyn Fee (Enniskillen) Miriam Kelly (Enniskillen)
JW2-
Megan Tully (Shannon)
Megan Carmody (Shannon)
*The JW Eight will be a combination of the 4+ and the 4-
Junior Men - Sweep Team (One pair will be added after Cork Regatta)
Coach: Fran Keane (Presentation College RC)
Olly O' Toole (Commercial) Edward Meehan (Commercial) Michael Lynch (Commercial) Ewan Jarvis (Commercial) Tom McKeon (SMRC)
Dylan O' Byrne (SMRC)
Odhran Donaghy (Enniskillen) Cox: Rory Farragher (Enniskillen)
Coach: Stewart Davis (Lee RC)
Junior Women - Sculling Team (There will be two names added after Cork Regatta)
Cliodhna Nolan (Carlow RC)
Georgia O'Brien (Kenmare)
Ciara Browne (Workmans)
Anna O'Sullivan (Fermoy RC)
Ciara Moynihan (Workmans) Coach: TBC
Junior Men - Sculling Team (There may be two names added after Cork Regatta)
Aaron Christie (Bann)
Tadhg McKnight (Three Castles) Alex Byrne (Shandon BC)
Andy O'Toole (Carlow RC)
Ross O'Brien (Carlow RC) Coach: TBC
*All selections are subject to continued performance and a willingness to partake in organised squad sessions and training camps as deemed necessary.
CORK CITY REGATTA:
Any person who is not pre-selected on this document, and who wishes to be considered for the remaining Home International places on the Men's Sculling and Sweep teams and Women's sculling team, are asked to enter JUNIOR 18 A (Div.1) 1x or 2- at Cork City regatta (June 24/25).
The highest ranked 1x or 2- from the finals will be considered to fill these positions. If no boat makes final A, B or C then the fastest times from the heats will be used. (i.e. Grand league and trial format).
Coaches must email their athletes intention to race to [email protected] (Sweep) or to [email protected] (Sculling) by 14/06/2017 and also to submit their most recent 2k erg score.
Published in Rowing

Sharks in Irish waters

Irish waters are home to 71 species of shark, skates and rays, 58 of which have been studied in detail and listed on the Ireland Red List of Cartilaginous fish. Irish sharks range from small Sleeper sharks, Dogfish and Catsharks, to larger species like Frilled, Mackerel and Cow sharks, all the way to the second largest shark in the world, the Basking shark. 

Irish waters provide a refuge for an array of shark species. Tralee Bay, Co. Kerry provides a habitat for several rare and endangered sharks and their relatives, including the migratory tope shark, angel shark and undulate ray. This area is also the last European refuge for the extremely rare white skate. Through a European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) project, Marine Institute scientists have been working with fishermen to assess the distribution, diversity, and monthly relative abundance of skates and rays in Tralee, Brandon and Dingle Bays.

“These areas off the southwest coast of Ireland are important internationally as they hold some of the last remaining refuges for angel shark and white skate,” said Dr Maurice Clarke of the Marine Institute. “This EMFF project has provided data confirming the critically endangered status of some species and provides up-to-date information for the development of fishery measures to eliminate by-catch.” 

Irish waters are also home to the Black Mouthed Catshark, Galeus melastomus, one of Ireland’s smallest shark species which can be found in the deep sea along the continental shelf. In 2018, Irish scientists discovered a very rare shark-nursery 200 nautical miles off the west coast by the Marine Institute’s ROV Holland 1 on a shelf sloping to 750 metres deep. 

There are two ways that sharks are born, either as live young or from egg casings. In the ‘case’ of Black Mouthed Catsharks, the nursery discovered in 2018, was notable by the abundance of egg casings or ‘mermaid’s purses’. Many sharks, rays and skate lay eggs, the cases of which often wash ashore. If you find an egg casing along the seashore, take a photo for Purse Search Ireland, a citizen science project focusing on monitoring the shark, ray and skate species around Ireland.

Another species also found by Irish scientists using the ROV Holland 1 in 2018 was a very rare type of dogfish, the Sail Fin Rough Shark, Oxynotus paradoxus. These sharks are named after their long fins which resemble the trailing sails of a boat, and live in the deep sea in waters up to 750m deep. Like all sharks, skates and rays, they have no bones. Their skeleton is composed of cartilage, much like what our noses and ears are made from! This material is much more flexible and lighter than bone which is perfect for these animals living without the weight of gravity.

Throughout history sharks have been portrayed as the monsters of the sea, a concept that science is continuously debunking. Basking sharks were named in 1765 as Cetorhinus maximus, roughly translated to the ‘big-nosed sea monster’. Basking sharks are filter feeders, often swimming with their mouths agape, they filter plankton from the water.

They are very slow moving and like to bask in the sun in shallow water and are often seen in Irish waters around Spring and early Summer. To help understand the migration of these animals to be better able to understand and conserve these species, the Irish Basking Shark Group have tagged and mapped their travels.

Remarkably, many sharks like the Angel Shark, Squatina squatina have the ability to sense electricity. They do this via small pores in their skin called the ‘Ampullae of Lorenzini’ which are able to detect the tiny electrical impulses of a fish breathing, moving or even its heartbeat from distances of over a kilometre! Angel sharks, often referred to as Monkfish have a distinctively angelic shape, with flattened, large fins appearing like the wings of an angel. They live on the seafloor in the coastal waters of Ireland and much like a cat are nocturnal, primarily active at night.

The intricate complexity of shark adaptations is particularly noticeable in the texture of their skin. Composed of miniscule, perfectly shaped overlapping scales, the skin of shark provides them with protection. Often shark scales have been compared to teeth due to their hard enamel structure. They are strong, but also due to their intricate shape, these scales reduce drag and allow water to glide past them so that the shark can swim more effortlessly and silently. This natural flawless design has been used as inspiration for new neoprene fabric designs to help swimmers glide through the water. Although all sharks have this feature, the Leafscale Gulper Shark, Centrophorus squamosus, found in Ireland are specifically named due to the ornate leaf-shape of their scales.