Prince Albert's visit to the Marine Institute headquarters in Oranmore will be held on the final day of the visit on 6 April. Prior to that the prince will hold meetings with An Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, minister for the marine, Simon Coveney, minister for the environment, Phil Hogan and Dublin's Lord Mayor, Gerry Breen.

The Head of Monaco will open an exhibition in honour of his late mother at Farmleigh House and the prince will host a reception to highlight Irish literature and art. In addition to honouring the royal visit a state dinner will be held by President Mary McAleese.

The world's second smallest state is home to the Musée Océanographique de Monaco which has an impressive collection of aquariums. Though the principality is more synonymous with the hosting of Formula 1 Grand Prix. The event is at the end of May and is expected to attract a higher than usual number of cruiseships totalling 12 cruise-calls.

Mostly they will be on charter and accompanied by mega-yachts which are to dock at the outer pier or anchor offshore and along the French Riviera at Villefranche, Nice and Cannes. At the far side of summer Monte Carlo's Port Hercule is also to host the Monaco Yacht Show in September.

The exhibition times are Friday 4th March (10:00am - 5:30pm) and on Saturday 5th March the opening hours are repeated (10:00am - 5:30pm). For further information on the trade-only show Tel: (053) 74 954 8037 / 954 8935 or by clicking here

These figures compare favourably with our European counterparts, reflecting a high level of activity on national and international research and monitoring programmes.

Work duties in 2011 for the Galway based vessels will range from fisheries surveys to underwater mapping and from climate studies to deepwater surveys with the remotely operated submersible ROV Holland 1. The work schedule will facilitate training missions and to carry out essential maintenance work on Ireland's network of data buoys that, in parallel to their research function, supply the vital information on which weather and shipping forecasts are based.

The increased activity of the research vessels reflects the growing imperative to understand and sustainably manage the economic potential of our offshore marine territories, an area over ten times that of Ireland itself.

A major role of the ships' workload will be commercial fish stock assessments. Together they are to devote 141 days on stock surveys in support of the sustainable management of Ireland's fisheries.

The RV Celtic Voyager will conduct underwater television surveys of valuable prawn stocks off the Aran Islands, the Irish and Celtic Seas, working on blue whiting, a survey of herring stocks in the north-west. In addition a comprehensive 54-day annual Irish Groundfish Survey which will take place in stages all around the Irish coast from September to December.

The survey will be the largest undertaken by an Irish research vessel and is essential to providing the scientific data used to inform the annual quota negotiations required in Brussels each year.

For the 2011 schedule for both vessels is available to view by clicking HERE and the Maritime Institute website click this link.

At 65.5m RV Celtic Explorer (2,425grt) accommodates 35 personnel and up to 21 scientists and 31.4m RV Celtic Voyager (340grt) with up to 8 scientists and a maximum endurance of 14-day days. For detailed technical specifications of the Dutch built vessels, RV Celtic Explorer, click here to download a PDF file and for the RV Celtic Voyager click here

For further information contact: Dr John Joyce, Communications Manager of Marine Institute on 087 2250871

Aran Direct (which was the trading name for Bád Arann Teoranta) operated on routes between Rossaveal to Inis Mór, Inis Meáin and Inis Oírr. The company competed in an intensely competitive market with at least 10 other vessels combined from the fleets of Aran Doolin Ferries, Aran Island Ferries and the Doolin Ferry Company.

In September 2008, Aran Direct ceased operations and the vessels were laid-up at Rossaveal, where they remain, as seen (if not previously sold) prior to the public auction.

At the instructions of Liam Dowdall Esq., Receiver & Manager, Bád Arann Teoranta (in receivership), the vessels are to be sold in one or separate lots. The public auction is to be held at 12 noon on Thursday 24th February at the Harbour Hotel, The Docks, Galway.

An outline of the vessels details can be downloaded in PDF format by clicking HERE. For further details, photographs and conditions of sale contact Dominic J. Daly, Auctioneer, Cork Tel: (021) 4277399 or E-mail: [email protected] and logging on to www.dominicjdaly.com

For further technical details, you can contact Noel O'Regan of Promara Ltd on 087 3435666 or email [email protected]