A £21 million survey of the State's offshore area may yield valuable new information on minerals, hydrocarbon deposits, fish stocks and other marine resources in the next century.
The survey, which will be the largest and most comprehensive in Irish waters, was announced yesterday by the Minister for the Marine and Natural Resources, Dr Woods, and the Minister for State at the Department of Public Enterprise, Mr Joe Jacob.
State-funded, it will be carried out over the next seven years under the direction of the Marine Institute and the Geological Survey of Ireland.
The survey strengthens the case for a second State marine research vessel, which was endorsed by the Minister for the Marine yesterday. The island of Ireland has one of the largest offshore areas in Europe, at 850,000 square kilometres - representing 90 per cent of the national territory.
An earlier survey funded by the Marine Institute over a small area of the seabed gave some indication of the unexplored potential, when it revealed 15 major canyons on the flanks of the Rockall Trough.
"Ireland is the only EU country without a territory-wide seabed mapping programme, and is one of those with most to gain," Dr Woods said when he made the announcement yesterday.
"It is essential that the area is fully charted, and the results will be a critical guide in the development of all aspects of the marine resource," he said.
The Minister said that the information would be applied to effective management of marine-based activities, such as fishing, minerals and hydrocarbon exploration.
"It will also provide an increased pool of marine specialists and an international shop window for Irish expertise and technologies," he said.
The State has only one dedicated marine research vessel, the Celtic Voyager, and it is expected that the Naval Service fleet, the new Irish Lights tender and other vessels of opportunity may be commissioned for periods during the survey work, subject to availability.
The project will involve three phases, according to Dr Peter Heffernan, director of the Marine Institute: an initial comprehensive survey involving both geologists and fishery scientists, a more detailed second phase concentrating on priority areas, and a final in-depth seismic study.
The project will be managed by the Geological Survey of Ireland under a joint steering committee involving the Departments of Marine and Natural Resources, Public Enterprise and Finance.
The main stakeholders will be asked to join an advisory committee, which will have an input in planning and designing the project.
Apart from Government Departments, the committee will include representatives of the Marine Institute, the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, the Naval Service, the oil and gas exploration industry, fisheries interests, and third-level colleges, according to the two Ministers.
Economic activities which will be covered by the survey will include extraction of sand and gravel (onshore extraction currently valued at £90 million annually); base metals, for which onshore production value in 1997 was £100 million; energy, given that offshore gas production last year was £49 million; and fisheries, which is now worth over £200 million in exports and £94 million annually to the economy.
The seabed survey will also have benefits for applications in relation to aquaculture, coastal zone management, coastal erosion, navigation, biotechnology, oceanography, archaeology and ocean engineering, the two Ministers said.
