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Displaying items by tag: Casey

Two superb performances by lightweight doubles got Ireland off to an excellent start on day two of the European Rowing Championships in Varese today. 

 The men’s crew of Paul O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy would go on to have a great win in their semi-final, but Aoife Casey and Margaret Cremen deserve the plaudits for taking second in their semi-final.

 This crew is aimed at the Olympic Qualification regatta next month in Lucerne and looked to be an outside bet initially. Their performances at this regatta changed that.

 In today’s semi, they showed great maturity. Italy took over early and were never headed, while Russia and Ireland tracked them in second and third. But the final quarter Ireland pushed through into a firm second place.

 Cremen and Casey take their place in the A Final on Sunday. The other semi-final, won by Britain from the Netherlands, looked stronger, but Ireland even have an outside chance of a medal. 

 McCarthy and O’Donovan were favourites for gold right from the start. Doubts, if there were some, related to the ability of the 2019 World Champions to turn it on again after effectively missing the 2020 season, such as it was.

 They had a real test in Italy, who led early and might have expected another battle in the closing stages. It never happened. Coming up to halfway, McCarthy and O’Donovan zoomed past the men in blue. They opened up the lead to clearwater and won. 

 Germany, who won the other semi-final, will contend on Sunday. However, their winning time was slower than the Irish today.    

 The Ireland double of Philip Doyle and Ronan Byrne were well off the pace in their semi-final and finished sixth. France, Britain and Switzerland got off to good starts and duly took the A Final places. Ireland had a poor start. They tried to move into contention in the middle stages but could not get a hold on the contest.  

 Daire Lynch qualified for the C Final (places 13 to 18) of the men’s single sculls, taking second in his semi-final. 

European Rowing Championships, Varese, Italy – Day Two (Irish interest)

Men

Double Sculls – A/B Semi-Final (First Three to A Final; rest to B Final): 1 France 6:10.26, 2 Britain 6:11.17, 3 Switzerland 6:12.79; 6 Ireland (P Doyle, R Byrne) 6:21.38. 

Lightweight Double Sculls – A/B Semi-Final (First Three to A Final; rest to B Final): 1 Ireland (F McCarthy, P O’Donovan) 6:22.74, 2 Italy 6:25.53, 3 Czech Republic 6:27.14. 

Single Sculls – C/D Semi-Final Two (First Three to C Final; rest to D Final): 2 Ireland (D Lynch) 7:02.22. 

Women 

Lightweight Double Sculls – A/B Semi-Final (First Three to A Final; rest to B Final): 1 Italy 7:11.44, 2 Ireland (A Casey, M Cremen) 7:14.44, 3 Russia 7:15.46. 

Published in Rowing

#Rowing: Ireland took fourth in the lightweight women’s double at the World Under-23 Championships in Florida. Aoife Casey and Cliodhna Nolan raced from sixth to fourth in the second half of this A Final, which was won well by Switzerland from the Netherlands and Germany.  

World Rowing Under-23 Championships, Sarasota Bradenton, Florida (Irish interest)

Women

Four – A Final: 1 Britain 6:34.22, 2 Ireland (C Feerick, E Lambe, T Hanlon, E Hegarty) 6:35.68, 3 United States 6:39.89.

Lightweight Double Sculls – A Final: 1 Switzerland 7:03.83, 2 Netherlands 7:09.45, 3 Germany 7:09.56; 4 Ireland (A Casey, C Nolan) 7:15.40.

Published in Rowing

#Rowing: Sanita Puspure, the O’Donovan brothers and Ireland lightweight coach Dominic Casey have all been chosen as finalists for the World Rowing Awards 2018. Puspure won gold in the women’s single sculls and Paul and Gary O’Donovan won the lightweight double, coached by Casey, at the World Rowing Championships.

 Just two crews, along with Puspure, are in the running for Women’s Crew of the Year, while there are four crews in the finals of Men’s Crew of the Year and for Coach of the Year. Casey has reached the final three years in-a-row.

 The awards will be presented on November 23rd in Berlin.

Finalists for the 2018 World Rowing Awards 

Women’s Crew of the Year

  • Caileigh Filmer, Hillary Janssens, CanadaWomen’s pair
  • Sanita Puspure, IrelandWomen’s single sculls
  • Agnieszka Kobus-Zawojska, Marta Wieliczko, Maria Springwald, Katarzyna Zillmann, PolandWomen’s quadruple sculls

Men’s Crew of the Year

  • Joshua Hicks, Spencer Turrin, Jack Hargreaves, Alexander Hill, AustraliaMen’s four
  • Jason Osborne, GermanyLightweight men’s single sculls
  • Johannes Weissenfeld, Felix Wimberger, Maximilian Planer, Torben Johannesen, Jakob Schneider, Malte Jakschik, Richard Schmidt, Hannes Ocik, Martin Sauer (coxswain), GermanyMen’s eight
  • Paul O’Donovan, Gary O’Donovan, IrelandLightweight men’s double sculls

Para-rowing Crew of the Year

  • Perle Bouge, FrancePara PR2 women’s single sculls
  • Ellen Buttrick, Grace Clough, Oliver Stanhope, Daniel Brown, Erin Wysocki-Jones (coxswain), Great BritainPara PR3 mixed coxed four
  • Annika van der Meer, Corne de Koning, Netherlands, Para PR2 mixed double sculls

Coach of the Year

  • Uwe Bender, GermanyMen’s eight
  • Dominic Casey, Ireland, Men’s pair, lightweight men’s and women’s double sculls, lightweight men’s quadruple sculls
  • Jan Klerks, Netherlands, Para-rowing team
  • Laurel Korholz, United States, Women’s four, women’s single sculls

2018 Sustainability Award

  • “Pushing for a Clean Sweep”, National Schools Regatta, Great Britain
  • “Partnership with Waikato Water Authority”, Rowing NZ, New Zealand
  • “Love Where you Row”, Alan Robinson/Schuylkill Navy, United States
Published in Rowing

#Rowing: The awards season is proving a fruitful one for rowers. Mark O’Donovan and Shane O’Driscoll were honoured at the Canon Hayes Centre awards and fellow Skibbereen man Paul O’Donovan has been nominated for the RTÉ Sportsperson of the Year award. All three won gold medals at the 2017 World Championships.

 Ireland coach Dominic Casey was also nominated for the World Rowing Coach of the Year at the World Rowing Awards. Casey and Morten Espersen, the former Ireland high peformance director, were also nominated for Distinguished Service to International Rowing.

 On the night, the France coach Alexis Besancon was chosen as Coach of the Year. John Boultbee of Australia won the Distinguished Service to International Rowing.

 The Male Crew of the Year were the German eight, Female Crew of the Year was single sculler Jeannine Gmelin and World Para Crew of the Year went to Birgit Skarstein of Norway.

Published in Rowing

#Rowing: The Afloat Rowers of the Month for August are Margaret Cremen and Aoife Casey. The Ireland double finished seventh at the World Rowing Junior Championships. The Lee/Skibbereen duo reached the semi-finals in Trakai, Lithuania, but while they could not make the top six they were impressive winners of the B Final, where France tested them. Amongst the countries which did not reach the last 12 were Australia, New Zealand, the United States and China. Twenty-eight countries competed in this discipline.  

 Cremen and Casey had taken a silver medal at the European Junior Championships in Germany in May. It was another highlight of an exceptional season. Ireland underage crews have been part of the general rise: so far they have taken two medals at the World Under-23 Championships and five at the Coupe de la Jeunesse, a European junior tournament.

Rower of the Month awards: The judging panel is made up of Liam Gorman, rowing correspondent of The Irish Times, and David O'Brien, editor of Afloat magazine. Monthly awards for achievements during the year will appear on afloat.ie. Keep a monthly eye on progress and watch our 2017 champions list grow.

Published in Rower of Month

#Rowing: Ireland’s double of Margaret Cremen and Aoife Casey won their B Final this morning at the World Rowing Junior Championships in Trakai, Lithuania. The race developed very early into a battle between France and Ireland, with Ireland less than a boat length ahead for much of the 2,000 metres. In the sprint finish, France could not overtake the Irish women.

 The result places Ireland seventh overall of the 28 crews which started.  

World Junior Championships, Day Five, Irish interest

Women

Junior Double Sculls – B Final (Places 7 to 12): 1 Ireland (A Casey, M Cremen) 7:38.31, 2 France 7:39.65, 3 Netherlands 7:42.20, 4 Ukraine 7:42.25, 5 Japan 7:42.85, 6 Greece 7:44.73.

Published in Rowing

#Rowing: Ireland’s Aoife Casey and Margaret Cremen will compete in the B Final of the women’s double at the World Rowing Junior Championships in Trakai, Lithuania. In this morning’s semi-final, the Skibbereen/Lee crew took fourth, just under two seconds behind Chile, who took the third qualification spot. Britain were impressive winners, ahead of Italy. Ireland took over in fourth in the second half of the race, but while they finished fast, they could not force themselves in the trio which qualified for the A Final.  

World Junior Championships, Day Four (Irish interest)

Women

Junior Double – Semi-Final Two (First Three to A Final; rest to B Final): 1 Britain 7:21.24, 2 Italy 7:25.05, 3 Chile 7:27.62; 4 Ireland (A Casey, M Cremen) 7:29.61, 5 France 7:30.71, 6 Netherlands 7:31.93.

Published in Rowing

#Rowing: Ireland have qualified for the semi-finals of the women’s double sculls at the World Rowing Junior Championships in Trakai, Lithuania. Aoife Casey and Margaret Cremen finished third in their quarter-final. Canada, who led from the early stages, won well. Ireland had tracked them, holding second from before halfway until the final stages when the Netherlands got ahead of them.  

World Rowing Junior Championships, Trakai, Lithuania, Day Three (Irish interest)

Women

Double Sculls – Quarter-Final Three (First Three to A/B Semi-Finals; rest to C/D Semi-Finals): 1 Canada 7:23.78, 2 Netherlands 7:29.52, 3 Ireland (A Casey, M Cremen) 7:30.27; 4 Austria 7:33.56, 5 New Zealand 7:36.51, 6 Estonia 7:52.65.

Published in Rowing

#Rowing: Ireland’s Aoife Casey and Margaret Cremen took third in their heat and qualified for the quarter-finals of the World Junior Championships in Trakai in Lithuania today. The Skibbereen/Lee double had tucked into third behind Britain, who won, and Germany by halfway. Ukraine and Belarus fought to take the fourth qualification spot, with Ukraine coming out on top.

World Junior Championships, Trakai, Lithuania, Day One (Irish interest)

Women

Junior Double Sculls – Heat Two (First Four to Quarter-Finals; rest to Repechage): 1 Britain  7:08.82, 2 Germany 7:12.30, 3 Ireland (A Casey, M Cremen) 7:16.58, 4 Ukraine 7:18.06.

Published in Rowing

#Rowing: Denise Walsh followed up her excellent silver medal at the European Championships in the Czech Republic with a win on the Olympic course at Dorney Lake in England today. Walsh partnered  Aoife Casey, who has just turned 18, to a win in the Championship Double at Metropolitan Regatta. The Skibbereen double rowed well in the top event for women’s doubles at this big event, covering the course in seven minutes 13.27 seconds.

Published in Rowing
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Irish Fishing industry 

The Irish Commercial Fishing Industry employs around 11,000 people in fishing, processing and ancillary services such as sales and marketing. The industry is worth about €1.22 billion annually to the Irish economy. Irish fisheries products are exported all over the world as far as Africa, Japan and China.

FAQs

Over 16,000 people are employed directly or indirectly around the coast, working on over 2,000 registered fishing vessels, in over 160 seafood processing businesses and in 278 aquaculture production units, according to the State's sea fisheries development body Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM).

All activities that are concerned with growing, catching, processing or transporting fish are part of the commercial fishing industry, the development of which is overseen by BIM. Recreational fishing, as in angling at sea or inland, is the responsibility of Inland Fisheries Ireland.

The Irish fishing industry is valued at 1.22 billion euro in gross domestic product (GDP), according to 2019 figures issued by BIM. Only 179 of Ireland's 2,000 vessels are over 18 metres in length. Where does Irish commercially caught fish come from? Irish fish and shellfish is caught or cultivated within the 200-mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ), but Irish fishing grounds are part of the common EU "blue" pond. Commercial fishing is regulated under the terms of the EU Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), initiated in 1983 and with ten-yearly reviews.

The total value of seafood landed into Irish ports was 424 million euro in 2019, according to BIM. High value landings identified in 2019 were haddock, hake, monkfish and megrim. Irish vessels also land into foreign ports, while non-Irish vessels land into Irish ports, principally Castletownbere, Co Cork, and Killybegs, Co Donegal.

There are a number of different methods for catching fish, with technological advances meaning skippers have detailed real time information at their disposal. Fisheries are classified as inshore, midwater, pelagic or deep water. Inshore targets species close to shore and in depths of up to 200 metres, and may include trawling and gillnetting and long-lining. Trawling is regarded as "active", while "passive" or less environmentally harmful fishing methods include use of gill nets, long lines, traps and pots. Pelagic fisheries focus on species which swim close to the surface and up to depths of 200 metres, including migratory mackerel, and tuna, and methods for catching include pair trawling, purse seining, trolling and longlining. Midwater fisheries target species at depths of around 200 metres, using trawling, longlining and jigging. Deepwater fisheries mainly use trawling for species which are found at depths of over 600 metres.

There are several segments for different catching methods in the registered Irish fleet – the largest segment being polyvalent or multi-purpose vessels using several types of gear which may be active and passive. The polyvalent segment ranges from small inshore vessels engaged in netting and potting to medium and larger vessels targeting whitefish, pelagic (herring, mackerel, horse mackerel and blue whiting) species and bivalve molluscs. The refrigerated seawater (RSW) pelagic segment is engaged mainly in fishing for herring, mackerel, horse mackerel and blue whiting only. The beam trawling segment focuses on flatfish such as sole and plaice. The aquaculture segment is exclusively for managing, developing and servicing fish farming areas and can collect spat from wild mussel stocks.

The top 20 species landed by value in 2019 were mackerel (78 million euro); Dublin Bay prawn (59 million euro); horse mackerel (17 million euro); monkfish (17 million euro); brown crab (16 million euro); hake (11 million euro); blue whiting (10 million euro); megrim (10 million euro); haddock (9 million euro); tuna (7 million euro); scallop (6 million euro); whelk (5 million euro); whiting (4 million euro); sprat (3 million euro); herring (3 million euro); lobster (2 million euro); turbot (2 million euro); cod (2 million euro); boarfish (2 million euro).

Ireland has approximately 220 million acres of marine territory, rich in marine biodiversity. A marine biodiversity scheme under Ireland's operational programme, which is co-funded by the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund and the Government, aims to reduce the impact of fisheries and aquaculture on the marine environment, including avoidance and reduction of unwanted catch.

EU fisheries ministers hold an annual pre-Christmas council in Brussels to decide on total allowable catches and quotas for the following year. This is based on advice from scientific bodies such as the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea. In Ireland's case, the State's Marine Institute publishes an annual "stock book" which provides the most up to date stock status and scientific advice on over 60 fish stocks exploited by the Irish fleet. Total allowable catches are supplemented by various technical measures to control effort, such as the size of net mesh for various species.

The west Cork harbour of Castletownbere is Ireland's biggest whitefish port. Killybegs, Co Donegal is the most important port for pelagic (herring, mackerel, blue whiting) landings. Fish are also landed into Dingle, Co Kerry, Rossaveal, Co Galway, Howth, Co Dublin and Dunmore East, Co Waterford, Union Hall, Co Cork, Greencastle, Co Donegal, and Clogherhead, Co Louth. The busiest Northern Irish ports are Portavogie, Ardglass and Kilkeel, Co Down.

Yes, EU quotas are allocated to other fleets within the Irish EEZ, and Ireland has long been a transhipment point for fish caught by the Spanish whitefish fleet in particular. Dingle, Co Kerry has seen an increase in foreign landings, as has Castletownbere. The west Cork port recorded foreign landings of 36 million euro or 48 per cent in 2019, and has long been nicknamed the "peseta" port, due to the presence of Spanish-owned transhipment plant, Eiranova, on Dinish island.

Most fish and shellfish caught or cultivated in Irish waters is for the export market, and this was hit hard from the early stages of this year's Covid-19 pandemic. The EU, Asia and Britain are the main export markets, while the middle Eastern market is also developing and the African market has seen a fall in value and volume, according to figures for 2019 issued by BIM.

Fish was once a penitential food, eaten for religious reasons every Friday. BIM has worked hard over several decades to develop its appeal. Ireland is not like Spain – our land is too good to transform us into a nation of fish eaters, but the obvious health benefits are seeing a growth in demand. Seafood retail sales rose by one per cent in 2019 to 300 million euro. Salmon and cod remain the most popular species, while BIM reports an increase in sales of haddock, trout and the pangasius or freshwater catfish which is cultivated primarily in Vietnam and Cambodia and imported by supermarkets here.

The EU's Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), initiated in 1983, pooled marine resources – with Ireland having some of the richest grounds and one of the largest sea areas at the time, but only receiving four per cent of allocated catch by a quota system. A system known as the "Hague Preferences" did recognise the need to safeguard the particular needs of regions where local populations are especially dependent on fisheries and related activities. The State's Sea Fisheries Protection Authority, based in Clonakilty, Co Cork, works with the Naval Service on administering the EU CFP. The Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine and Department of Transport regulate licensing and training requirements, while the Marine Survey Office is responsible for the implementation of all national and international legislation in relation to safety of shipping and the prevention of pollution.

Yes, a range of certificates of competency are required for skippers and crew. Training is the remit of BIM, which runs two national fisheries colleges at Greencastle, Co Donegal and Castletownbere, Co Cork. There have been calls for the colleges to be incorporated into the third-level structure of education, with qualifications recognised as such.

Safety is always an issue, in spite of technological improvements, as fishing is a hazardous occupation and climate change is having its impact on the severity of storms at sea. Fishing skippers and crews are required to hold a number of certificates of competency, including safety and navigation, and wearing of personal flotation devices is a legal requirement. Accidents come under the remit of the Marine Casualty Investigation Board, and the Health and Safety Authority. The MCIB does not find fault or blame, but will make recommendations to the Minister for Transport to avoid a recurrence of incidents.

Fish are part of a marine ecosystem and an integral part of the marine food web. Changing climate is having a negative impact on the health of the oceans, and there have been more frequent reports of warmer water species being caught further and further north in Irish waters.

Brexit, Covid 19, EU policies and safety – Britain is a key market for Irish seafood, and 38 per cent of the Irish catch is taken from the waters around its coast. Ireland's top two species – mackerel and prawns - are 60 per cent and 40 per cent, respectively, dependent on British waters. Also, there are serious fears within the Irish industry about the impact of EU vessels, should they be expelled from British waters, opting to focus even more efforts on Ireland's rich marine resource. Covid-19 has forced closure of international seafood markets, with high value fish sold to restaurants taking a large hit. A temporary tie-up support scheme for whitefish vessels introduced for the summer of 2020 was condemned by industry organisations as "designed to fail".

Sources: Bord Iascaigh Mhara, Marine Institute, Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine, Department of Transport © Afloat 2020