Another Life: A small, sad event in Irish politics this autumn was the protest by Mayo's Michael Ring,TD, that to be made the Fine Gael spokesman on marine affairs was altogether too humble an undertaking after all his years in the party. It was a reminder of the real priorities in a political career, but it hurt, even so, to see him so unmoved by the ocean on his doorstep, with all its current challenge and excitement writes Michael Viney.
Part of his problem was that there is no Minister for the Marine, and thus little prospect of high-profile opposition in the Dáil. Indeed, the Taoiseach had had to be pressed even to include the word "Marine" in the title of its Department, along with Communications and Natural Resources.
That, in itself, was depressing, and one of the reasons Fine Gael's Enda Kenny thought marine affairs should have a spokesman all its own.
There's certainly enough going on. In the world's biggest exercise of its kind, Ireland has been mapping the geology of a territorial seabed up to 10 times the size of the State, with serious promise of deep-sea oil and gas and new mineral resources. Aquaculture, already a major industry, is mounting new frontiers of technology. Pharmaceutical companies are looking to ocean species for big new steps in drugs. And, of course, our trawlers are right out there hunting the depths for fresh sources of luminous fish nuggets. A hi-tech headquarters for the Marine Institute is going up fast in Galway and a new, state-of-the-art research ship, the Celtic Explorer, has put Irish oceanography on an international footing.
At the same time, Ireland has to take its share of the crisis that has overtaken marine life globally, and to join in finding new rules for human dealings with the sea. Among imminent marine affairs will be discussions on co-operation with Britain in governing the Irish Sea, as part of the new "ecosystem approach" to marine conservation. Beyond immediate concern about the massacre of fish stocks, we need to control all human impacts on the undersea world.
Concern for the overall health of the northeast Atlantic drives many European and international agencies. It has also inspired the UK's Review of Marine Nature Conservation - the first such thoroughgoing scrutiny in 20 years. By the year's end, the British government will respond to proposals for marine nature conservation in the "wider sea, regional seas, marine landscapes, important marine areas, and priority marine features in UK waters." "Marine landscapes" needs some explaining. They are the equivalent of "habitats" on land, sometimes coastal but also areas of seabed of particular value to ocean life, or even water masses such as nutrient-rich upwellings vital to plankton production.
The review body's ideas were tested in the Irish Sea, which is much studied by scientists from both countries. This has cleared the way for the recommended "dialogue" between Britain and the Republic about identifying areas for protection. The Irish Sea Pilot scheme didn't get down to discussing specific problems, such as particular estuary outflows of farm nitrates or toxic industrial PCBs, or even the effluent from Sellafield. It did suggest in passing, however, that offshore wind farms might actually be a good thing, in creating protected areas for fish.
The ecosystem approach has not found Ireland unprepared. The big BioMar survey of the 1990s, paid for by the EU, mapped the island's different coastal marine habitats and biodiversity. Along with the vast Atlantic mapping by the National Seabed Survey, there have been special studies of the species-rich coastal beds of maerl (coralline seaweed) and of the Irish Sea's great banks of sand and gravel. The discovery of cold-water coral reefs on the slopes of the Rockall Trough and the Porcupine Seabight has taken Irish marine scientists into entirely new realms of the Atlantic's deep-water ecology.
Intensive research into the ocean is still very young. But we probably know enough about some areas now to set up marine reserves as oases of undisturbed spawning and seeding. Special Area of Conservation designations are already supposed to be safeguarding several of our bays and estuaries, and there will be more of these to come. But the EU Habitats Directive under which they were created applies not only to Ireland's territorial waters (12 nautical miles from the coast), but to our Exclusive Economic Zone up to 200 nautical miles from the coast - Greenpeace had to take Britain to court to make that same point.
Somewhere in all this, you'd think, is a proper job for any politician.