More lives will be lost if there is not a national policy on regular cleaning of piers and slipways, a Mayo woman has warned.
Joanna McNulty was speaking to The Sunday Independent about the campaign she initiated after the death of her father, fisherman Joachim McNulty, who lost his life after his car slipped on an algae-covered slipway into the water at Belderrig, north Mayo, last February.
Ms McNulty and her mother Geraldine met Minister of State for Fisheries and Marine Timmy Dooley on the issue in Ballina, Co Mayo, on Friday.
She told the newspaper that a recent near mishap on a north Mayo slipway was like a “kick in the teeth”.
Remembering Joachim — Mayo fisherman Joachim McNulty, whose death at Belderrig in February has sparked calls for a national policy on the maintenance and cleaning of algae-covered slipways and piers
The incident where a diving club jeep skidded on algae into the sea at Kilcummin on May 16th occurred just three months after her father’s death off Belderrig pier.
There were no injuries at Kilcummin. The jeep involved is owned by Granuaile Sub-Aqua Club and Search and Recovery Unit which had helped to retrieve Mr McNulty’s body at Belderrig.
Just over ten years ago, five members of the McGrotty and Daniels family drowned on March 20th, 2016, when the family’s SUV slid off the slipway at Buncrana in Co Donegal.
A Garda sergeant described at the inquest into the deaths how he was unable to walk on the lower part of the slipway because it was "slippery with algae".
Publicly-owned piers and slipways which are not in fishery harbour centres or State ports are the responsibility of individual local authorities.
Michael Loftus of Granuaile Sub Aqua Club and Search and Recovery Unit, a Fianna Fáil councillor, confirmed that he had been in touch with Mayo County Council on the Kilcummin issue.
He was informed it had been cleaned on March 30th, but a video of the incident shows the bottom half of the slipway was not cleared.
He says Mayo County Council has now committed to a programme of cleaning over 50 piers and slipways five times a year between March and September, and this will be "documented".
At the meeting with the McNulty family on Friday, Mr Dooley is understood to have promised a cross-departmental working group to examine all the issues from a national perspective.
As Afloat has reported, Karin Dubsky, co-ordinator of the Coastwatch environmental organisation, has appealed to all local authorities to ensure that non-hazardous chemicals are used when clearing algae from slipways and steps.
Coastwatch has also extended the appeal to swimming, sailing and other watersports groups using slipways and steps.
“The problem when local authorities don’t maintain these areas properly is that people may take it into their own hands and use products with bleach - which is in breach of the legislation,”Coastwatch co-ordinator Karin Dubsky says
Read The Sunday Independent here
