Our knowledge of the sea is about to get a huge boost, thanks to the commissioning of a €32m research ship, writes Lorna Siggins.
Ireland's new €32 million marine- research vessel, Celtic Explorer, is due to be sent on its first mission next week: the deployment of a weather buoy off the coast of Donegal.
The 65-metre ship, which is due to be commissioned in Galway tomorrow by Dermot Ahern, the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, will then start work on the national seabed survey, in collaboration with the Geological Survey of Ireland.
The Marine Institute says the ship will play a major role in the seabed survey for the next three years. A hundred and eighty days a year have been booked for the work, which will be carried out by Celtic Explorer and its sister ship, the 31-metre Celtic Voyager.
Most of the deep-water work has been completed by Global Ocean Technologies, a Waterford-based contractor. The two State-owned ships will focus on shallower areas, between 50 and 200 metres deep. Last year, Celtic Voyager spent 40 days surveying the Donegal Bay area as part of the multimillion-euro initiative.
The ship's shakedown was continuing last week, but its performance on recent fishing trials was very impressive, according to Dr Peter Heffernan, the Marine Institute's chief executive. "All the fisheries and science systems worked very well, and it showed that it could fish and carry out plankton surveys at the same time," he says.
"This will yield very powerful information on where spawning is occurring and the size of fish, and will be crucially important when Ireland participates in the international mackerel egg survey next March as part of the EU/International Council for the Exploration of the Sea \ research programme."
Eighty days are earmarked this year for fishery survey work, and the institute is inviting fishermen to observe the work and "share their knowledge and experience with us", says Dr Heffernan. He is aware of scepticism about the research work, up to 50 per cent of which is funded by the EU. There is considerable gloom in the industry as a result of severe cuts in the revised common fisheries policy - a policy that may increase effort in Irish waters by EU vessels, in spite of lip service paid to conservation.
"If you play poker, you know how important it is to know at first hand what the deck deals," he says. "Any information on fish stocks going to the EU and ICES will also be available to the Government here. The Irish scientific role is hugely important, and for the first time in the history of the State we have the infrastructure to do this."
There will be two benefits, according to Dr Heffernan. "Accuracy of assessment means that we can advise on real-time adjustments in fishing effort, either in terms of stocks being healthier than originally estimated or being at greater risk."
The ship is booked on the seabed survey until October 10th, when it will be commissioned by the Marine Institute for work on an EU-funded groundfish survey, along with the French and Scottish research ships Thalassa and Scotia. This will involve a 35-day survey of the shelf area between 15 and 500 metres in the Irish Sea and the Celtic Sea and off the west coast.
Billed as the world's quietest research ship, Celtic Explorer has a multinational make-up; its keel was laid in Romania and it was fitted out in Holland. It can accommodate 31 people, 19 of them scientists, and remain at sea for 45 days. Its equipment includes a multibeam sounder that can take a "footprint" of a sea area using depth readings; a sub-bottom profiler, which collects information about rock type and material below the seabed; a gravity meter, which measures minute changes in Earth's gravity field; a magnetometer, which measures Earth's magnetic field; and a sophisticated navigation-planning system.
The ship is also fitted with a 44 square metre wet laboratory, to handle samples at sea during trawling.
Celtic Explorer will also be engaged in "high risk opportunities", as Dr Heffernan puts it, to do with research into wind and wave energy. "Overall, it is a balanced portfolio of innovation and lower-risk work," he says.
Although the primary aim is to serve the State's needs, the ship will also be available for charter. Marine-science students will also be trained on both ships; other State organisations and third-level institutions already use Celtic Voyager for this.
The Celtic Explorer commissioning tomorrow will be followed by two open days on the ship in Galway docks, from noon to 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday