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Displaying items by tag: Dublin Port Dredging

#MarineWildlife - This weekend Dublin Port is deploying data buoys in Dublin Bay to monitor marine wildlife activity during the controversial dredging works at Alexandra Basin.

According to The Irish Times, the four boys will provide live data on any whales, dolphins or porpoises in the vicinity of the Burford Bank near Howth, where up to a million tonnes of dredge spoil will be dumped over the next few weeks.

As previously reported on Afloat.ie, campaigners have raised concerns about the safety of Dublin Bay’s harbour porpoises, protected by an SAC since 2013, during the dredging operation.

The Irish Times has more on the story HERE.

Published in Dredging

#marinewildlife - Concerns have been voiced by campaigners about the safety of the Dublin Bay porpoise as Dublin Port commences dredging.

The Journai.ie writes that the Dublin Port Company (DPC) plan to remove up to a million tonnes of material from the port and dump it near Howth in order to keep the port deep enough for large naval vessels.

DPC says that the maintenance dredging process, which starts today, will last for between two to four weeks. Maintenance dredging is the periodic removal of sediments and is vital for many ports.

However, campaigners say that the waste material should not be dumped at DPC’s usual site near Howth. They are also fearful that porpoises could be harmed by the dredging vessel.

For more on the story click here. 

Afloat adds that a dredger from the UK is to arrive to the port tomorrow. 

Published in Dredging

Esailing & Virtual Sailing information

The concept of e-sailing, or virtual sailing, is based on a computer game sailing challenge that has been around for more than a decade.

The research and development of software over this time means its popularity has taken off to the extent that it has now become a part of the sailing seascape and now allows people to take an 'active part' in some of the most famous regattas across the world such as the Vendée Globe, Route du Rhum, Sydney Hobart, Volvo Ocean Race, America’s Cup and some Olympic venues too, all from the comfort of their armchair.

The most popular model is the 'eSailing World Championship'. It is an annual esports competition, first held in 2018 and officially recognised by World Sailing, the sports governing body.

The eSailing World Championship is a yearly competition for virtual sailors competing on the Virtual Regatta Inshore game.

The contract to run the event was given to a private company, Virtual Regatta that had amassed tens of thousands of sailors playing offshore sailing routing game following major offshore races in real-time.

In April 2020, the company says on its website that it has 35,000 active players and 500,000 regattas sailed.

Virtual Regatta started in 2010 as a small team of passionate designers, engineers, and entrepreneurs gathered around the idea that virtual sailing sports games can mix with real races and real skippers.