Healthy Society

WE make use of the marine environment as a source of food, oil and gas, aggregates, bio-pharmaceuticals and other natural resources. It provides a means of transport and, potentially, unlimited generation of renewable energy. It is a sink for the disposal of sewage, agricultural and other wastes. It hosts important productive sectors, providing revenue and employment for thousands of people. The seas and coasts also support a complex infrastructure needed by our modern society and economy in order to function. Other less practical uses and requirements are no less real and important. The seas and coasts provide opportunities for relaxation and recreation that are fundamental to our lifestyle and sense of well-being.

Economic activity

A significant amount of Ireland's economic activity is based on the marine environment and the relative importance to the economy of marine-based activities continues to rise. This is reflected in the €1.7 billion total Government expenditure on the marine and natural resources sector under the National Development Plan 2000-2006.

• In 1998 Ireland's combined marine sector contributed nearly €1.2 billion to the national economy and provided full and part-time employment for over 32,000 people. The Government has previously forecast this to increase to €1.75 billion and 39,000 jobs in 2003[1].
  
  
• Some 99 per cent of Ireland's external trade passes through ports: about three-quarters of it through ports in the Republic, the remainder through ports in the North. Ireland's domestic merchant fleet may only be small, comprising just 29 or so large vessels, but it nevertheless undertakes a significant amount economic activity.
  
  
• In 2000 the Irish fishing fleet comprised 1,274 boats, including aquaculture service vessels. They landed some 272,480 tonnes of sea fish worth about €189 million — and these figures exclude landings made by foreign boats into Irish ports. The Irish fleet currently accounts for approximately 30-35 per cent of the total international landings of fish and shellfish from the region[2] that includes the seas around Ireland and off the west coast of Britain.
  
  
• Since fish farming in coastal waters (i.e. marine aquaculture, or mariculture) began in Ireland in the 1970s, finfish and shellfish farms have spread to nearly every coastal county. In 1999 the value of aquaculture output accounted for one-third of the value of total seafood supply. In 2000 Irish aquaculture production[3] was some 51,250 tonnes valued at over €95 million. Aquaculture output is projected to increase to just over 97,000 tonnes valued at nearly €176 million in 2008. The Government aims to increase annual Irish aquaculture production to 160,000 tonnes by 2017.
  
  
• In 2001 Irish exports of fish and fish products were worth about €433 million.
  
  
• Total employment on a full and part-time basis in the marine food sector, which embraces all economic activities deriving from the biologically productive capacity of the seas, is around 15,720 persons. Of these, aquaculture employs an estimated 2,200 persons, and fish processing some 4,000 persons.
  
  
• Marine tourism and recreation are also a key economic activity. Over 50 per cent of Irish adults engage in water-based leisure activities, spending over €380 million annually and supporting employment for 11,000 people. In 1998 the Government estimated that a further 350,000 people would start to participate in water-based activities if facilities are developed and improved, resulting in 8,000 new jobs in the sector[4].

(Sources: Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM); CSO Fishery Statistics 2000, 10/1/02; Ireland's Environment: A Millennium Report, Environmental Protection Agency, April 2000; FIS/Fish Information & Services)

Infrastructure

As an island nation Ireland is both separated from and connected to the world by the sea. The connections are critical to Ireland's society and economy. Our reliance on marine infrastructure makes the secure provision of marine infrastructure services a matter of national importance.

Ireland's small open economy is strongly dependent on external trade and sea transport to reach its main markets. The sea-lanes of international shipping provide the means to export and import raw materials and products useful to a modern society and economy. By volume, 99 per cent of Ireland's external trade passes through ports. In 2000 this amounted to 46 million tonnes.

Underwater "interconnector" gas pipelines between Ireland and Britain ensure a continuity of natural gas supplies sourced from as far a field as Turkey and Siberia. Underwater cables distribute high-voltage electricity to inhabited offshore islands and carry vital telecommunication links that connect us with the world.

The deployment of pipelines and cables, and our economic and social reliance on them, are likely to increase in coming years thus giving rise to increasing conflict between different marine user groups. For example, the establishment of cable and pipeline protection zones and corridors to prevent damage from ships' anchors and certain fishing techniques clearly limits fishing activities for commercially valuable species, whilst breaches of infrastructure protection zones leading to damage can result in considerable direct and indirect cost to society.

Energy related marine infrastructure is, and will remain vitally important to the economy. Ireland's current heavy dependence on fossil fuels requires considerable infrastructure to receive, handle and utilise imports by sea of crude oil, fuel oil and coal — for example, the Whiddy Island oil terminal in Bantry Bay, the Money Point coal-fired and Tarbert heavy fuel oil-fired power stations on the Shannon Estuary, and the Whitegate Refinery in Cork Harbour. Infrastructure is also increasingly being put in place to service offshore exploration and facilitate the production and transport of oil and gas — for example, the Kinsale Head and Ballycotton gas field platforms and pipelines, and the proposed Corrib gas field subsea wellheads and pipeline.

Now, due principally to the global effort to ameliorate human-induced climate change, Ireland faces an inevitable shift toward offshore sourced renewables such as wind, wave, tidal and solar, and the development of associated infrastructure including offshore windmill parks, floating solar collecting platforms, and tidal current and coastal wave energy generators. Clearly there is an urgent need for a national strategy to guide the transition from a fossil fuel based to a renewables based marine infrastructure.

Non-economic activity

The sea is an important and often overlooked facet of Ireland's unique identity and the well-being of its coastal communities. As an island people, the Irish have long had a cultural as well as physical relationship with the seas and coasts. Many people have strong feelings of connection with the marine environment. Some would describe their connection as spiritual. Value is placed on the spaciousness, vastness, silence, power, wilderness and otherworldliness of the sea. For many of us, such values form part of our worldview and are commonly translated into personal practices of conservation and care.

We use and value the seas and coasts for a variety of non-economic reasons, which ultimately enhance our lifestyles. Although qualities such as intrinsic worth, wilderness, spiritual value, well-being, social value and ecosystem health are not as easy to quantify as the value of economic use they are no less important to people.

Of those who connect directly with the seas and coasts, recreational and leisure users are, and will remain by far the most numerous. Whether swimming, sailing, diving, surfing, fishing, building sandcastles, playing ball games, walking on the beach or just looking out to sea — for many of us this use of the marine environment brings with it a sense of well-being variously described as peace, relaxation, calm, pleasure, invigoration and renewal.

People from all walks of life enjoy the common purpose of recreation and agree that clean water and beaches, and unimpeded access to the seas and coasts are important. However, competition for, and conflict over space and resources between different users of the marine environment is often associated with marine-based recreation in its various forms. In a growing number of cases, different forms of use cannot exist safely in the same place at the same time, for example the use of water jet skis in areas used by bathers. As more and more people congregate in the same parts of the coastline for recreational purposes, tensions are likely to increase.

But despite our dependence on the marine environment, little is currently being done to reverse the failing health of our seas and coasts.

Footnotes

1. Marine Research Plan to Create 7,000 jobs and extra £430M for Economy — Woods. 5 Year Strategy Charts way Forward. Department of the Marine and Natural Resources, press release, 15/9/98.

2. OSPAR Region III (Celtic Seas).

3. Including freshwater production.

4. Woods orders major review of regional ports. Development potential to be tapped in creating 8,000 jobs in marine leisure. Department of the Marine and Natural Resources, press release, 22/7/98.