A vast expanse of waterway, visible from the ramparts of Inishowen's Grianan an Aileach, may be transformed by the new north-south body responsible for loughs and the lighthouse network.
That waterway is the Foyle - one of two inlets on the 2,700-mile coastline where jurisdiction has been disputed. Carlingford - the better known of the two on foot of a British army boarding of a yacht sailed by former Taoiseach, Mr Charles Haughey - has a thriving shellfish industry, valued at just over £1 million in terms of gigas oyster and bottom mussel production in 1997. It also has a private marina. Plans for similar development on the Foyle, and for yacht marinas, can now be realised, according to local development managers.
Mr Seamus Bovaird, manager of the Foyle Fishermen's Co-op in Greencastle, Co Donegal, said Donegal and Derry shellfish farmers could look forward to a guaranteed future, while there is also potential for at least one yacht marina. The Marine Institute has identified Carrigarory on the western shores of the Foyle as a potential area for marine leisure development.
The Foyle Fisheries Commission, which has been concerned mainly with salmon on the lough and river system, has been subject to local criticism in recent years, particularly over development of shellfish.
No licences have been awarded to shellfish farmers on the waterway, and as a result no EU grants can be availed of, according to Mr Bovaird. "Shellfish farmers recognise the need for an authority which will manage it in an equitable way." Bord Iascaigh Mhara has been involved in a pilot scheme involving mussel cultivation in the Foyle, but the lack of access to EU aid precluded development of shore facilities to add value, Mr Bovaird said. There are plans for three marinas on the Swilly, but Foyle's shelter at Carrigarory could become the first such facility north of Kilrush on the Shannon estuary, on a south-about circumnavigation of Ireland.
Mr Stewart Norris of the North-East Inishowen Tourism and Development Company in Moville, Co Donegal, says a marina could be built at Carrigarory for £4 million, offering 200 berths.
"Given our close affinity with the Scottish coast, and the fact that we can offer the first landfall on an Atlantic crossing to Europe, it could be a very viable enterprise," said Mr Norris. The Foyle, Carlingford and Irish Lights Commission, as it is to be known, will be based in Derry, with a sub-office in Carlingford, Co Louth. New legislation will transfer responsibilities hitherto held by the Foyle Fisheries Commission to it, and it will also assume responsibility for the lighthouse network, which will continue to be run by the Commissioners of Irish Lights.
Two major cross-Border programmes to promote aquaculture and the marketing of seafood in the North's six counties and the six border counties of the Republic have been initiated by BIM in conjunction with the Department of the Marine and Natural Resources, Northern Ireland Seafood, and the North's Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.
