Walsh urges sanctuaries to save marine fish stocks

Most of Ireland's underwater riches remain to be discovered and exploited, a conference on marine research has been told.

"We know more about the surface of the moon than we do about the sea about us," said Dr Peter Heffernan, chief executive of the Marine Institute. "Ninety per cent of Ireland is undeveloped, undiscovered and under water."

However, much of the conference, held to mark the 10th anniversary of the institute, was dominated by concerns about dwindling fish stocks. A leading scientific body, the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea, recently recommended that fishing in the Irish Sea should be stopped to conserve supplies.

Dr Ed Walsh, chairman of the Irish Council for Science, Technology and Innovation, said the only way to stop trawlers "cheating" by over-fishing stocks was to create sanctuaries in the oceans inside which fishing is prohibited.

The marine sector in Ireland was small in comparison to other sectors and in comparison to the same sector in other EU states, yet it had huge potential.

Fishing and aquaculture generate revenues of €1.2 billion, compared to €4 billion for agriculture and forestry and €75 billion for industry and services.

One of the main problems was that fishing activity was outpacing natural regeneration of stocks, Dr Walsh said. The sector was of major importance in the development of rural Ireland, particularly with the continuing decline of agriculture. As EU farm subsidies were phased out, five to seven million farmers would be displaced throughout Europe.

He pointed out that while Ireland's output had increased modestly, Iceland and Norway had achieved a 45-fold increase in the sector in the space of 30 years.

Dr Walsh dismissed the Government's national spatial strategy as politically driven and said the transfer of Civil Service departments out of Dublin was "nonsense". Government had to be able to function in a capital city.

He called for the development of a "counterpole" to Dublin which would have the infrastructure and the "honeypots" to attract enterprise. An "Atlantic alliance" of Cork, Limerick and Galway could be formed and connected by motorway and high-speed electronic links.

This axis would then be connected to the nearest point to the continent, in Co Wexford, to create an alternative axis to Dublin.

Dr Walsh said it was "garbage" to route all main roads through Dublin.

Dr Richard Grainger from the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in Rome told the conference that total world fish catches had reached a plateau and were even starting to decline. Many of the world's oceans were over-fished or fully-fished, he said, and the potential for developing new areas was limited.

Dr Grainger blamed the failure to manage fish stocks on a number of factors, including a lack of political resolve to make unpopular decisions, the continuation of subsidies and a lack of control on the activities of fishing fleets.

However, improved fishery management could improve matters. By allowing fish to live longer, there would be fewer fluctuations in supplies and large, more valuable, fish could be caught.