National research vessel gives harbour clean bill of health

CORK HARBOUR has been given a clean bill of health following a unique exercise involving the national research vessel.

Two groups of 11 transition year students from Douglas Community College and Presentation College in Cork boarded the RV Celtic Explorer at Horgan’s Quay last week and cruised around the inner harbour as part of the Marine Institute’s outreach programme. Working alongside the institute’s new Integrated Marine Exploration (IME) team and scientists from University College Cork (UCC), they collected a range of water and seabed samples.

Andy Wheeler, a senior lecturer in UCC’s department of geology, said the harbour waters are in pretty good shape. “It is an estuary and no estuary is completely clean, but it’s in good shape overall. There are no major alarm bells ringing.”