Our Ocean Wealth - Towards an Integrated Marine Plan for Ireland: Seeking Your Views on New Ways; New Approaches; New Thinking

To support the development of an Integrated Marine Plan for Ireland, a short consultation document has been prepared. This document: describes our ocean economy and the potential opportunities; outlines our rich and diverse marine and coastal ecosystems; indicates some of the key challenges facing us and our oceans; summarises what the Government can do to get the conditions right for sustainable growth; and asks what the private sector, communities, State bodies and the higher education sector will do to make growth happen

Arsenic in Irish marine macroalgae- implications for industry

Marine Institute: http://www.marine.ie/Home/AsMARA AsMARA project: [email protected] National University of Ireland Galway: [email protected] Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: www.agriculture.gov.ieThere is a long tradition of using seaweeds from Irish waters as food, fertiliser and animal feed. Both nationally and globally, there is a renewed interest in using this resource for a host of products in the food, feed, agricultural, cosmetics and biotechnology sectors. According to SeaChange1 the estimated worth for the Irish seaweed sector is predicted to increase significantly by 2020. One barrier to developing seaweed-based industries relates to reported high levels of arsenic for many types of seaweed including some species of interest to Irish companies.Funder: This project is funded under the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine’s Competitive research programmes. Reference number 14 SF 860

Charting a perfect storm of water quality pressures

peer-reviewedThe agri-food economy can be a significant driver of water quality pressures but the role of hydro-meteorological patterns in a changing climate also requires consideration. For this purpose, an assessment was made of a ten-year synchronous high temporal resolution water quality and hydro-meteorological dataset in Irish agricultural catchments. Changes occurring to rainfall intensity and soil temperature patterns were found to be important drivers of nutrient mobility in soils. There were links between the intensity of the North Atlantic Oscillation over the decade and large shifts in baseline nutrient concentrations in catchments. The data also revealed extreme weather impacts to pollution patterns including short periods of rain induced nutrient flux, that exceeded average annual mass loads in these catchments, and drought influences on point source pollution. These influences need consideration, and may require different mitigation strategies, as links between water quality land use pressure and water quality state in regulatory reviews. In a decade of both increased land use source and hydro-meteorological transport pressures, water quality natural capital in Ireland has faced a perfect storm. Such conditions are difficult to model and only revealed in high temporal resolution datasets.Government of Ireland Department of Agriculture Food and the Marin

The role of emotions in the choice to adopt, or resist, innovations by Irish dairy farmers

In this paper we uncover the emotional factors that contribute to the adoption, or rejection, of different categories of innovation by dairy farmers in Munster, Republic of Ireland. Although emotions have been extensively researched in different fields, little research to date has examined the effects of emotions on farmers' decision making. Munster is the most important region for grass-based dairy farming in Ireland and this type of farming still plays an important role in Ireland's economy and sense of self. By using in-depth interview data from 27 dairy farmers and 6 other participants in the local industry we identified three categories of innovation that were influenced by different emotional pathways. We further uncovered the strong value-driven emotions that underpin the Irish dairy farmers' beliefs about what farming is, and means, and the influence that this has on innovation choices

Our Ocean Wealth - Background Briefing Documents: Part II: Sectoral Briefs

This briefing document provides a profile our marine sectors including an overview of current Government plans and policies in place (seafood, seaweed, shipping and maritime transport, renewable and non-renewable energy, marine ICT and biotechnology)

Our Ocean Wealth - Background Briefing Documents: Part III: ‘Enablers’ - Getting the Conditions Right for Growth

This briefing document describes the ‘enablers’ that are needed to improve the conditions for growth and investment

Our Ocean Wealth - Background Briefing Documents: Part I: Context

This briefing document provides an economic and environmental profile of Ireland’s marine resource