Irish branch of global marine conservation body wants 2024 to be a big year

Pressure from Sea Shepherd eventually led to around 6,000 whales being saved in the Antarctic that had been earmarked for hunting.

Deep sea diving to retrieve discarded nets, cleaning dozens of beaches, and patrolling international waters to deter illegal fishing are just some of the ambitions of the newly-established Irish arm of a global marine conservation organisation.

Sea Shepherd Ireland is an offshoot of Sea Shepherd Global, a non-profit group that has confronted the likes of the Japanese government over whale fishing, leading to international action being taken to stop the practice.

Pressure from Sea Shepherd eventually led to around 6,000 whales being saved in the Antarctic that had been earmarked for hunting.

Currently, the organisation has two Irish activists on separate international missions to patrol Antarctica and West Africa in a bid to quell illegal fishing and protect marine biodiversity.

Kinsale's Eoin Keyes is first officer aboard the MV Allan Kay ship in the Antarctic, which is on a mission to tackle what Sea Shepherd calls "the greatest ecological threat to the Antarctic ecosystem" by monitoring the fishing activity of a growing fleet of trawlers targeting vital krill populations.

In March, on its first day of patrolling, Mr Keyes and the crew found two trawlers plowing through a megapod of 100 whales, with nets collecting the krill the whales were feeding on. The trawlers sped off when confronted by the MV Allan Kay.

Hugh Weldon from Dublin is a crew member on the ship MV Age of Union that is currently in West Africa. It is going to Liberia to pick up a team from that country's navy, after which is will patrol and search for vessels who are fishing illegally in the jurisdiction.

(Left to right) Eoin Keyes from Kinsale and Hugh Weldon from Dublin. 

The Age of Union has stopped five illegal trawlers in The Gambia with the help of the Gambian coastguard, while also scaring off companies from aggressively fishing off Gabon. 

In Ireland, Sea Shepherd's new arm is actively training divers in order to tackle the scourge of discarded nets, as well as cleaning more than 30 beaches across the country. Around 11,000 tonnes of fishing gear is lost or discarded at sea in the EU every year, according to the European Commission.

Abandoned, lost or discarded fishing gear accounts for 27% of beach litter, according to an EU impact assessment of 2018.

Sea Shepherd Ireland has scheduled its first underwater diving training in Ireland on collection of discarded nets as part of the GhostNets network campaign that runs internationally. The training will take place at Portroe Quarry in Co Tipperary.

Global conservation activist organisation Sea Shepherd's Irish crew members Eoin Keyes (right) and Hugh Weldon (left). 

Area manager for Sea Shepherd Ireland, Manuel Salazar, said the organisation wants 2024 to be a big year for its conservation efforts in Irish waters.

"We have joined with an Irish base diving school to join Sea Shepherd Ireland and run this campaign together. Last year, two of their most experienced divers went over to the UK and got a special Sea Shepherd Global training and licence for this specific campaign.

"The plan now is to start training Irish divers and create technical teams that will go initially at the Irish Sea and start cleaning operations. We are hoping in the future to join other Sea Shepherd territories and progress this campaign as an international collaboration."