Ireland could provide the European Union's model for satellite tracking of ships at sea, following agreement on a multimillion-pound project involving the Naval Service.
The contract to design a new fisheries control system in Irish waters has been awarded by the Department of Defence to a consortium lead by Ernst and Young Management Consultants, it was formally announced on the LE Eithne in Dublin yesterday. It will be managed by the Naval Service on the Department's behalf.
The "nerve centre" for the Lirguard system, nicknamed "the spy in the sky" by fishermen, will be at the Naval Base in Haulbowline, Co Cork. Many new EU regulations have been introduced on conservation grounds, and by the next century many of the larger fishing vessels will have to carry "black boxes" to allow satellite monitoring of their movements as part of the control and enforcement regime.
Initially a handful of Irish vessels in the Killybegs supertrawler fleet will have to carry the new system when satellite monitoring is introduced in the EU from July. This first wave will apply to craft over 24 metres, and will affect only industrial trawlers, distant water vessels and ships fishing in non-EU or "third country" waters and on the high seas.
The Lirguard project involves handling increased data communications between the European Commission and the Union's enforcement agencies. Already the Naval Service has one of the most advanced information technology systems in Europe, rivalled only by France, and Lirguard is expected to provide a model for the EU.
The geographical information system (GIS) in Haulbowline has records of 7,000 vessels, and is a valuable tool for indicating changing patterns of fishing activity in the 200-mile exclusive economic zone.
Its specific applications include a vessel-monitoring system for satellite tracking, which has an obvious safety dimension; a system of monitoring effort or catch; and catch reporting and entry/exit reporting by vessels at sea.
All of the "stakeholders" in fishery protection, including the seven patrol ships, the two Air Corps Casa patrol aircraft, the coast radio stations and the Department of the Marine will feed into the system at Haulbowline.
The first phase, costing £670,000, will be dedicated to analysis, and the second will involve buying hardware and software to build the system from September. It is hoped to have this completed by December.
Among those attending the contract signing were the Flag Officer of the Naval Service, Commodore John Kavanagh, and representatives of the Department of Defence. The Ernst and Young consortium includes Oracle Ireland, Smith System Engineering Ltd and Paradigm Technology Ltd.
