With power hoses, shovels, and lots of elbow grease, members of Grainne Uaile Sub-Aqua Club and Search and Recovery Unit in Mayo have cleaned a public slipway that was at risk of a serious incident. Kilcummin slipway in north Mayo is the responsibility of the local authority – as in Mayo County Council – which told the club it had cleaned it on March 30th.
However, club members were so concerned about the state of the slipway over the June bank holiday weekend, when other diving clubs might be visiting, that they decided to clean it properly themselves.
Just a fortnight before, there had been a potentially hazardous incident. The sub-aqua club’s jeep was launching a rib at Kilcummin on May 16th when the wheels lost their grip and skidded into the water. It transpired that only the top half of the slipway had been adequately cleared of algae.
There were no injuries at Kilcummin, but the incident occurred just three months after the death of Mayo fisherman Joachim McNulty off Belderrig pier. He lost his life after his car slipped on an algae-covered slipway into the water at Belderrig, north Mayo, last February.
Publicly owned piers and slipways that are not in fishery harbour centres or State ports are the responsibility of individual local authorities.
Michael Loftus of Grainne Uaile Sub Aqua Club and a Fianna Fáil councillor, confirmed that he had been in touch with Mayo County Council on the Kilcummin issue. 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 he has been told that this will be "documented".
Michael Loftus of Grainne Uaile Sub-Aqua Club during the volunteer-led clean-up of the algae-covered slipway at Kilcummin Pier, north Mayo.
At the meeting with the family of the late Joachim McNulty in Ballina, Co Mayo, last Friday, Minister of State for Fisheries Timmy Dooley is understood to have promised a cross-departmental working group to examine all the issues relating to pier and slipway maintenance 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 that use slipways and steps.
