World Ocean Week: Regenerative tourism making a splash in Kerry
Kerry-based AquaTerra Boat Tours, eco-conscious marine adventures: When visitors see the puffins, gannets, seals, whales, and dolphins, they see how precious the wildlife and environment are and see why it needs protection.
Valentia Island native Brendan Curtin truly believes he hit the jackpot in getting to grow up there.
The Kerry man, a former Irish Navy Commissioned Officer, travelled to all sorts of fascinating faraway lands and seas in his previous career. However, nothing he’s experienced could hold a candle to the beauty of his homeplace.
“Ireland really is the gold standard, especially in terms of marine tourism and wildlife watching opportunities in places like Páirc Náisiúnta na Mara and the Skellig Coast. The experiences you can have there are the best you’re going to get anywhere in the world.”
It was a desire to protect these areas and all that they have to offer that inspired Brendan and his wife, Elizabeth McCooey, to launch their business AquaTerra Boat Tours offering eco-conscious marine adventures.
“We started AquaTerra back in 2019 and it was with the idea of improving accessibility for more people to see and appreciate our amazing coastline, but also to help those people understand the lived experiences of people in the area past, present and future and show them how the marine world shapes the rural communities that we live in. So we started with that emphasis on storytelling, but both that and sustainability are at the very heart of everything we do.”
“We’re really proud to showcase all that Valentia Harbour has to offer. There’s so much history there, you can see the world’s first ever transatlantic telegraph cable, or learn about characters such as the Knights of Kerry who lived on the island as well as the lighthouse and the lighthouse keepers. You couple that with the wildlife we can see here; puffins, gannets, seals, whales, dolphins — we don’t take any of it for granted. Many others come here and they’re in awe, it’s not something you get to see every day. We really show them how precious wildlife and the actual environment that we operate in is, and then it clicks for them why it needs looking after.”
AquaTerra is doing that work of looking after the area through many different approaches. Recently, as part of AquaTerra’s commitment to leading in regenerative tourism, Elizabeth completed a Level 9 Regenerative Tourism module at Munster Technological University, exploring how tourism can actively support healthy ecosystems, vibrant communities, and long term sustainability.
The insights gained are still being embedded across the business, shaping how AquaTerra plans for lasting impact.
From day one, however, they have been leading the way in eco-conscious boating, with all the vessels used for their tours designed to lower emissions and minimise environmental impact.
Their Skellig Bounty is Ireland’s first vessel built under marine survey with a dedicated sustainability plan, setting new standards for the responsible exploration of the Skellig Coast, while the Navigator, a custom-built wheelchair-accessible boat, ensures that everyone has the chance to experience the beauty of Valentia Harbour.
While Brendan and Elizabeth are happy to go this extra mile simply because it is the right thing to do, they acknowledge that there is currently very little incentive for other businesses to follow suit.
“There are a lot of challenges in terms of the support and funding available to ecotourism businesses like ours,” Brendan explains, emphasising that grant systems currently in place can be quite restrictive. “For example, there are EU funds that are administered through various agencies, mostly under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) scheme, but if we were to use that funding to purchase new equipment they would specify that petrol is not allowed but diesel is.
"So you could buy and run a quieter engine, with less noise and vibration disrupting the wildlife, but that won’t be grant-aided whereas new diesel engines would be. That’s only a very small piece of the issue we have found, but additionally, there is little opportunity there to get support for alternative fuels. Even HVO or hybrid options are not supported in any manner through any of the government funds, so there’s really not enough being done in regards to adaptation and improving what can be offered by tourism operators.”
While pushing for change on these issues is an ongoing uphill battle, Brendan acknowledges there is progress being made in other areas, with AquaTerra welcoming recent initiatives such as the newly introduced pilot Code of Conduct for Responsible Marine Wildlife Watching within Páirc Náisiúnta na Mara.
“At AquaTerra, as a team we know the local environment inside out and we understand the wildlife there, so when we get any opportunity to interact with them, particularly the whales and dolphins, we always do that in a careful manner. With the publication from the National Parks and Wildlife Service of this proposed code of conduct, it really just introduces those same boundaries to everybody and explains how we got about following them.
"It now brings everybody in the area into scope and all operators must follow it, which is a great thing. So although the scheme is in its infancy at the moment and will be reviewed later this year, it’s a really important part of laying down those common boundaries and guidelines of how everybody should interact with nature. It’s in everybody’s best interest.”
