Letter to the Editor: Commercial fisheries and aquaculture excluded

It is the opinion of the Sustainable Water Network that the inclusion of commercial fisheries and aquaculture in the Marine Planning and Development Bill is of utmost priority. Picture: David Creedon/Anzenberger

An important responsibility for Peter Burke, the minister of state for planning and local government, is the production of Ireland’s first marine spatial plan. 

The National Marine Planning Framework (NMPF) promises to transform how Ireland plans and manages human activities in its waters, and we at the Sustainable Water Network (SWAN) support most of the ambitions the minister outlined in his Irish Examiner article of July 31.

We agree that the right balance is needed between the three pillars of sustainable development: “Protecting the health of the ocean, enhancing our social engagement with the sea, developing a thriving maritime economy.” 

Without a healthy ocean, most of the benefits of the social and economic pillars would cease, so ‘balance’ should be heavily weighted in favour of environmental protection. 

The draft plan showed some promise, with high-level objectives for ocean health, so we eagerly await a planning framework and legislation that will “enshrine a system in law and in practice that will protect Ireland’s greatest resource”, as the minister said.

However, in conflict with this promising plan, the minster’s article included one huge caveat, hidden in a footnote, the significance of which is likely to go unnoticed by all except close observers. 

On the subject of the Marine Planning and Development Management Bill (long-awaited legislation to modernise marine licensing and which will also underpin the new marine spatial plan), a small asterisk denotes: “The 1933 Foreshore Act will still apply to fisheries-related consent, i.e. aquaculture and fisheries harbours.”

This postscript means that commercial fisheries and aquaculture are being excluded from the new licensing system, despite being two of the most important, impactful, and widespread marine activities in the country. 

They are included in the NMPF, yes, but the draft legislation that will give legal effect to the plan will not apply to either industry.

The draft Marine Planning and Development Management Bill states: “The Minister for Agriculture, Food, and the Marine is the appropriate minister for foreshore functions relating to aquaculture, sea-fisheries-related development, and fishery harbour centres under Section 1B of the Foreshore Act. 

"Those activities, and any other development within the functional remit of the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, are excluded from the scope of the bill.”

This omission has come under intense criticism from environmental groups and aquaculture representatives alike.

Addressing the subject in December 2019, during a public consultation meeting, Damien English, the previous minister of state, said that “the situation with the Department of Agriculture is not finished yet”.

It is SWAN’s opinion that the inclusion of commercial fisheries and aquaculture in the Marine Planning and Development Bill is of utmost priority, not just for the protection of the environment, but for the viability of the businesses that endure a dysfunctional and outdated licensing system. 

Resolving this unfinished matter with the Department of Agriculture will be key to the success or failure of the marine plan and we urge Mr Burke to do so with great urgency. 

To leave fisheries and aquaculture out of the bill would allow the fragmented marine-management system in this country to persist to the detriment of the health of our ocean and the livelihoods of those who depend on the ‘blue economy’.

Cormac Nolan

Policy officer, Sustainable Water Network (SWAN)

9 Upper Mount St,

Dublin 2