The Atlantic Ocean is the world’s second-largest ocean and covers 20% of the earth’s surface.

The waters around Ireland constitute a small part of that vast ocean but they are very productive; they support a diverse range of international fishing activities and contain important marine habitats and ecosystems.

This resource requires careful management to protect vulnerable components whilst ensuring sustainable exploitation.

This “Atlas of Commercial Fisheries around Ireland” provides a series of detailed maps of fishing activity around Ireland with the aim of providing insights into fishing activities and fisheries resources.

Fishing effort is mapped by gear and country. Irish landings of the key commercial species are mapped individually and by gear.

The 2021 survey continues the Marine Institute’s Winter Nutrients monitoring that commenced in 1990/91.

The survey has evolved and expanded during this time period with respect to target areas, parameters and sampling strategy. In 2011 this survey was reestablished as a winter environmental survey with a broader remit to provide supporting information for OSPAR and Water Framework Directive (WFD- Directive 2000/60/EC) assessments and also to maintain the winter time series on key biogeochemical parameters in Irish waters in response to pressures such as land based inputs of nutrients and climate change.

Since 2011 the survey circumnavigates the Island of Ireland every two years, alternating southabout and northabout, starting in the Irish Sea and ending in Galway. This provides a complete coverage of Irelands coastal waters over 2 year periods.

However, given the timing of the surveys, winter by necessity to ensure minimal biological activity and therefore highest concentrations of dissolved nutrients, the weather is a significant factor in determining the actual as opposed to planned coverage of the target stations.

This work is complementary to inshore water quality monitoring activities of the Irish Environmental Protection Agency and Marine Institute and the annual offshore oceanographic survey/climate section (53N/Rockall Trough) on the RV Celtic Explorer led by the Oceans Climate and Information Services group at the Marine Institute.

The 2021 survey was designed to collect multidisciplinary information on physical conditions, water chemistry (dissolved nutrients, total alkalinity (TA), dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) and salinity), sediment chemistry (persistent organic pollutants POPs and trace metals), sediment particle size distribution and benthic macroinvertebrates (at targeted waterbodies around the coast).

This contributes to data collection needs of various statutory drivers (WFD and the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) Directive 2008/56/EC) as well as providing a research dataset on status and changing conditions (trends and variations) for key environmental variables.

As a result of the COVID pandemic, operational adjustments were implemented such that scientific complement on-board was limited to 2-3 persons at any one time.

In light of this, the survey plan was adjusted to allow the survey to be completed in two legs. 1. Leg 1 – Galway – Dublin: benthic macro-invertebrate sampling 2. Leg 2 – Dublin – Galway: winter nutrient, carbon and contaminants sampling. In order to achieve this plan, the number of survey days was increased to 16.

Ireland is experiencing a period of major change in terms of the legal and policy framework for marine decision-making, the political and socio-economic context for marine activities, the influence of technological change on marine activities and resultant societal impacts.

Furthermore, increased awareness of the marine environment by the general public, owed to increased education and increased access to resources, as envisaged by the previous Integrated Marine Plan for Ireland, Harnessing Our Ocean Wealth (HOOW), continues to provide increased engagement with marine issues.

Ireland is beginning the process of developing a successor to HOOW, and this foresight study seeks to support that process.

The study has reviewed existing information, both in relation to past and current trends and potential future changes, in seeking to identify the key drivers of change across social, technological, economic, environmental and political topics.

The results of the study are captured in an Evidence Database and summary report.