Protecting the wildlife in the deep blue sea

Another Life:Until a few years ago, my mind-pictures of Ireland were all landbound, even though a good many looked out to the ocean from this or that cliff or sandy shore, writes Michael Viney.

Now I try to find room in my gallery for the hidden places of the deeps, far beyond my clearest horizon, pitch-black if one were down there, and mapped in the great national seabed survey only by echoes and scribbles on sonar screens. In the new sharing out of the near Atlantic seabed, a huge wedge of it is more of Ireland.

Rockall used to be the place of storms, the tolling bell of shipping forecasts heard beyond my pillow, or the lone, black haystack of rock tilted away from the swells. Now, since the big mapping, it's also the vast valley down below, carved into the continental shelf and stretching the length of Ireland and beyond. Going south, it curves round the shelf edge to meet the great Tolkienesque amphitheatre of the Porcupine Seabight: the rocky fingers of west Cork point straight at it.

Tucked up under the towering eastern cliffs of the Rockall Trough, on the northwest of the Porcupine Bank and on the high slopes of the Seabight are the four sets of deep coral reefs that Ireland and the EU Commission have decided to protect - somewhat urgently as these things go - against any further damage from trawl rollers, rock-hoppers, chain ticklers, long-line anchors, tangle-nets and the rest.

The Belgica Mounds, Hovland Mounds and the two Rockall clusters are some of hundreds of such reefs that have grown along the slopes of the shelf: great hummocks of limestone mud and ancient coral debris, some founded on rocks dropped by icebergs, and most topped with intricate thickets of living Lophelia, the coral of the deep Atlantic currents. Among its rosy branches live more than 1,300 different animals. A score of different fish have peered into the lenses of submersible cameras. The reefs are like lush hedgerows on the slopes of tumbled scree and sediment.

All of them, not just the chosen few, are precious to marine life. But, as so often happens in conservation, we save what we can at least penalty to human commerce. The reefs are "representative" habitats - "good examples" to be added to the great stamp collection of the EU's Natura network. As an interim measure, on Ireland's request, the European Commission agreed this month to an immediate ban on any kind of fishing in the four selected reef areas. They add up to some 2,500sq km of seabed that may be left reasonably intact.

The Commission was acting also on a report from an expert group set up by that powerful watchdog, ICES - the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea. Its attempts to find out how protecting the reefs would affect the fishing industry showed how hard it can be to know just what is going on at sea.

There is a Vessel Monitoring System (VMS), linked to satellites, that keeps track of the distribution of trawlers. Its records gave "a general impression of fleet activity" at the edge of the Irish shelf (100 to 140 vessels in each area during most years) but rarely said anything about vessel speed - which might show whether trawlers were just travelling or fishing - or what gear they were using. Only Ireland had data to offer on annual landings from the areas in question: Spain, France and the UK could not help. At one of the Porcupine sites, sightings and boardings by the Irish Navy found longlining, bottom trawling and gill netting vessels all within its boundaries.

Forkbeard, grenadier, cardinal fish, scabbard fish, deepwater sharks - these are familiar shapes in a catch trawled from the seabed at 1,000m or below. But many other fish use the reefs at some stage in their lives, for feeding, spawning or sheltering when young - orange roughy, hake, ling and redfish among them. Protecting the actual corals from physical damage is one thing; managing their "associated" fish to protect the whole reef ecosystem is not so simple. It was why the site boundaries urged upon the ICES group by Dr Eamonn Kelly of the National Parks and Wildlife Service included three-kilometre buffer zones.

Even more problematic was whether or not to stop "pelagic" trawling with mid-water nets for shoals of highly migratory blue whiting or mackerel swimming above the coral reefs. The ICES group accepted that this would do no harm to their conservation - but until the VMS data available to the Irish Government could distinguish between the activities of the various fishing fleets, "the only effective enforcement measure might be to close the entire area". Which is what the Commission has done. It adds to the pressure for proper information on which marine conservation can be based.

Eye on Nature

Walking in the Partry Mountains I came across a tree high on a cliff face between Loughs Nadirkmore and Dirkbeg. At first sight it appeared to be a birch, but the leaves were broader. Considering its location at 300m up a cliff, I assume it is a native tree.

Tom Vogelaar, Westport, Co Mayo

It was an aspen which survived grazing by its location. This is the Tree Council of Ireland's Year of the Aspen, a native tree notable for the distinctive fluttering sound of its leaves.

Walking through Killruddery Estate in Bray, Co Wicklow, I witnessed four birds of prey soaring and circling high above me - red kites that were recently reintroduced to the county.

Karl Byrne, Bray, Co Wicklow

Some animal leaves droppings on significant crossing-places and rocks on my land. Definitely not the usual fox or badger. It resembles otter spraint but not so slimy. Sometimes it contains small bones and holly-berries or haws. I reckon it is the pine-marten that I see lurking in the scrub.

Nick Harman, Louisburgh, Co Mayo

It is typical pine marten spraint.