Scientists at the University of Galway have won a major EU funding contract for satellite research into the state of fish stocks off the west coast. More than £500,000 has been awarded to a team led by Dr John Patching and Dr Robin Raine of the college's Martin Ryan Institute, in collaboration with scientists based in Southampton and Gdansk in Poland. The teams will use information on ocean colour gathered by satellites to determines the types and quality of phytoplankton - microscopic algae which form the basis of marine food chains, and which can ultimately determine the size of fish stocks.
There's an environmental twist to the project. Phytoplankton draws on carbon dioxide, and so it will also yield information on global warming and the greenhouse effect. The Galway researchers will compare satellite information from sites in the Atlantic and Baltic with data measured from traditional research ships during five research cruises - three off the west coast of Ireland. Galway's Martin Ryan Institute was also one of the successful bidders in the latest tranche of marine research projects announced by the Minister for the Marine and Natural Resources, Dr Woods, in Howth, Co Dublin, last week. Some 27 projects have been selected from 84 proposals under the EU's second round of the 1997 Marine Research Measure. Speaking in Howth, Dr Peter Heffernan, director of the institute, appealed for more money. Many excellent proposals had had to be rejected due to a shortage of funds, he said. Among the successful ones are proposals to study sea lice ecology, trials on coastal water monitoring, and a socio-economic evaluation of the impact of fisheries and aquaculture in counties Donegal, Galway, Kerry and Cork.
The paltry sums given to marine research are in stark contrast to the budget earmarked for protection of inland fisheries, at £10 million annually. Yet much of the State's inland waterways are privately owned, either by business syndicates or by people who live outside the country and who pay only £200,000 annually in water rates. Although the Republic has 8,625 miles of river and 145,000 hectares of freshwater lake, the State holds a very small stake: when lands were bought back after Independence, the right to fish rivers was guaranteed to former owners in perpetuity under the Constitution.
It is an issue that comes into sharp focus again now that the Central Fisheries Board has drawn up a £25 million development plan for angling tourism. Should waterways be State-owned or are private owners better managers? Is Ireland becoming an exclusive playground for rich syndicates - like Scotland, where a small angling party can pay up to £27,000 for a week on the river?
The RTE programme Leargas has taken a look through the eyes of reporter Mairead de Buitleir and producer/director Brian Mac Lochlainn in a fascinating documentary which is to be broadcast tomorrow night. There are subtitles in English, and it is on RTE1 at 7.30 p.m.