How can Ireland help protect the world's oceans?

This major event means our small island nation is celebrating World Ocean Day under an international spotlight — with unprecedented attention now being paid to what Ireland is doing to help the 30 by 30 campaign, which aims to secure protection for 30% of the world’s oceans by 2030.

While the island of Ireland may not be huge, we have a maritime area that is over several times the size of the island. This means the Irish government has jurisdiction over a huge area of ocean stretching from the Celtic Sea along our east coast, all the way out into the middle of the Atlantic Ocean towards Canada.

Given that we have such an enormous area of ocean under our care, it’s up to us to make sure it’s healthy and looked after. Sadly this is not the case today.

Compared to our international counterparts, Irish waters are severely lacking in ‘Marine Protected Areas’. These are special areas identified through scientific research that are critical to ocean biodiversity or areas where fragile or rare ecosystems/habitats are found.

Marine Protected Areas or ‘MPAs’ for short, are used by many other countries to protect areas that are good at sequestering and storing carbon, which is invaluable in fighting climate change. MPAs can also protect areas where fish lay their eggs or rear their young. By fully protecting these spawning grounds it means that fish can reproduce safely and stocks of these species — which could be cod, herring, lobsters or crabs — can grow. New Zealand, for example, now has 44 Marine Protected Areas which are being used to reverse long-term declines of their fish and shellfish populations.

MPAs could similarly be used in Ireland to safeguard breeding populations of our fish, like farmers take special care of their breeding animals. Instead of nature conservation being viewed as in conflict with fisheries, MPAs may provide a simpler, cheaper, fairer, and more effective way to sustain inshore fisheries. A public survey carried out by the Government's Marine Protected Area Advisory Group in 2020 even found that 92% of respondents wanted more Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in Ireland.

Fair Seas published their report ‘Revitalising Our Seas’ in June 2022, identifying sixteen Areas of Interest for Marine Protected Areas designation. This report used the best available data to identify which parts of our ocean would benefit from being included in Ireland’s new protected area network. The report sets out which species need protection, in which areas and how active monitoring and management are needed to ensure the successful conservation and recovery of the species in question.

In late 2022 the Irish government began drafting new national Marine Protected Area legislation. Fair Seas has been campaigning to ensure this legislation is as robust as possible so that when Ireland’s new network of Marine Protected Areas is created, the necessary management, monitoring and funding can be simultaneously allocated to ensure that they are actually allowing the biodiversity within them to recover.

The road from legislation to the designation of this new network of Marine Protected Areas between now and 2030 must be one that incorporates the best available data to identify MPAs and one where we — the Irish general public, and our coastal communities — are engaged through a genuine participatory stakeholder engagement process.

We all have a stake in the ocean and we must do all we can to help turn the tide — after all, the ocean generates over half of the oxygen we breathe!

To learn more, and to join the call for 30 by 30, visit www.fairseas.ie.