The Marine Institute is about to launch a new policy on how to develop our marine resources over the next seven years, writes Dick Ahlstrom.
Permanent underwater observatories, new marine biotech discoveries, functional foods from the sea and world-class marine research facilities are all key elements of a new, all-encompassing marine policy document being launched tomorrow in Galway.
The Marine Institute's Sea Change plan includes all aspects of the marine here and hopes to deliver a €1.5 billion boost to the marine economy.
"Sea Change is a marine knowledge, research and enterprise strategy that will run from 2007 through 2013, the life of the National Development Plan," says the chief executive of the Marine Institute, Dr Peter Heffernan.
It includes all aspects of marine enterprise here, from leisure and tourism to fish farming and trawling, research and discovery to oil, gas and pharmaceuticals from the sea. The collective marine industry directly and indirectly employs some 44,000 people, says Heffernan. The goal is to push this €3 billion industry to €4.5 billion by 2013.
The institute devised the Sea Change policy document after a foresight exercise looking at a 2020 horizon and "a great deal of consultation", says Heffernan. It represents a strategy that will develop the marine industry here and help build a knowledge-driven economy around it. The details are set for release tomorrow at the institute's headquarters in Oranmore, Co Galway, with the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, Noel Dempsey, officiating.
The document identifies niche areas for exploitation and shows how research can be turned into income. "The involvement of the third-level researchers is absolutely fundamental. It is essential we have the knowledge engine to allow that level of growth."
It maps out ways for the food and industrial activities to grow, and presents a science plan that will create extra employment and further develop the economy, says Heffernan.
The sector is important, given that we are a maritime country, but the employment it creates is particularly important, given much of this is away from urban centres. "It is highly important in the context of regional development," says Heffernan.
The Sea Change document is also a reflection of our growing confidence and influence in the development of marine strategy in an EU context. The institute has undergone rapid growth with new facilities and staff and the development of strategic thinking in terms of the marine.
"The strategy we have developed and the growth we have achieved has been noticed across Europe," he believes. Central to this was the Galway Declaration, a document that arose in 2004 during Ireland's presidency of the EU.
"That document highlighted the importance of the oceans to all our lives. It has taken root in Europe, and the EU used it to develop its Green Paper on the marine," he says. "The stimulus to develop that overarching policy came from the Galway strategy."
It has helped make the marine a central part of the EU research agenda under Framework Programme 7. "The Irish Government led that lobby and was successful in developing the marine in FP7."
Heffernan provided a sampler of the kind of science that the Sea Change document will support. The most novel is the creation, with the EU, of a permanent underwater observatory based on the use of broadband technology.
An undersea network of sensors and cameras would monitor changes in water conditions, the migration of fish species and other parameters. This would connect to observatories on the surface and also to coastal centres, with satellite links connecting up the whole.
Heffernan also expects the system to include "underwater autonomous vehicles" that could rove along the sea floor, linking up to the network periodically to upload data and recharge batteries. Such a network would build on the seabed mapping that has already been done on the 220 million acres of sea floor that makes up our full landmass.
Also central to Sea Change's science programme is the €250 million that has been invested over the last few years in our scientific capacity. This includes the Celtic Explorer and Celtic Voyager research vessels, the funding put into third level labs via the HEA's Programme for Research in Third Level Institutions, and in the Institute's own labs in Newport, Co Mayo, and Oranmore. There is also the new National Maritime College in Cork.
This powerful research capacity will help two key sectors within the plan, biotechnology and functional foods from the sea. It will allow our scientists to develop marine ingredients and study organisms and micro-organisms living on the sea floor.