Ireland is committed to protecting its marine environment, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said at the opening of the Fair Seas World Ocean Week conference in Cork’s City Hall on Wednesday.
“As an island nation, our connection to the sea shapes our communities and our identity,” Mr Martin said.
“In our coastal towns and villages, it has sustained families for generations. As an island nation, the sea is not the edge of Ireland, it is the beginning of the rest of the world.”
He said his Government continues to work to deliver a legally robust framework for marine protected areas alongside broader marine planning measures.
“The Fair Seas conference provides an important opportunity to bring together international expertise, scientific leadership, and community voices to help drive meaningful progress on ocean conservation.”
Sustainable future
Speaking to The Echo, Mr Martin said the conference was about how best to utilise the sea and how to create a sustainable future for the maritime domain.
“Fundamentally, we’re under threat, the seas are under threat, but there is a pathway, and the marine-protected area concept is particularly important. We have agreed that 30% of our seas would be marine-protected.
“It will mean a lot of negotiation with the stakeholders, with everybody involved, but it’s in everybody’s interest, it’s in society’s interest, in terms of regenerating our seas, conserving species, because the seas are the foundation of life.”
Fair Seas is a coalition of leading environmental non-governmental organisations and networks.
The campaign group’s membership includes Irish Wildlife Trust, BirdWatch Ireland, Sustainable Water Network, Irish Whale and Dolphin Group, Streamscapes, the Irish Environmental Network, and Coastwatch.
Protect and manage our ocean
The event at City Hall is the second Fair Seas conference and brings together international experts, ocean advocates, fishing and coastal communities, government, industry, and key stakeholders to discuss how we protect and manage our ocean in to the future.
The keynote speaker, Minna Epps, who is global ocean policy director at the International Union for Conservation of Nature, called for co-ordinated action to protect the oceans amid accelerating climate and biodiversity challenges.
“Pollution, biodiversity loss, overfishing, and climate impacts cross borders through ocean currents, ecosystems and economies alike,” Ms Epps said.
“That is why ocean protection cannot be approached in isolation or through fragmented action.
“The real test for protecting the global ocean is no longer ambition, it is delivery.”