Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 11 July 2013

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine

Bord Iascaigh Mhara Annual Report 2011: Discussion

1:30 pm

Mr. Donal Maguire:

I thank the Chairman for the opportunity to attend and the members for their queries. The simplest thing to do is give an update on the Galway Bay salmon project and then I shall deal with the other issues.

As the committee will be aware from previous contributions, there has been an attempt to kick-start the upscaling of production from the organic certified Irish farmed salmon sector. As required under Food Harvest 2020, BIM has worked closely with its colleagues in the Marine Institute and brought forward a plan to locate and secure licences for various offshore locations. In doing so, we have relied heavily on the institute's expertise because it has the leading scientists in this area.

As Mr. Whooley mentioned in his presentation, we have used substantial work packages by the Marine Institute in our environmental impact study around the location. The location in Galway Bay was the first and will probably be the largest and most ambitious application that we are likely to have, simply because it is the largest body of water and shows the greatest potential for a large scale salmon farm.

In accordance with the Fisheries (Amendment) Act 1997, we forwarded an application with an environmental impact study to the aquaculture foreshore management division of the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, which is the competent authority for licensing. The application went to both statutory and public consultation and the processes finished in mid-December.

We received a great number of submissions to which we have responded. All of the responses have been lodged with the Department. As an applicant, we must be careful how we treat the matter. Our understanding of the process is that the Department will have circulated all of the documentation to the relevant State experts and, in turn, will receive various appraisals and reports. We do not know whether we will have requests for further information or clarification or whether it will be deemed that the Department has sufficient information to make a recommendation to the Minister. He can accept the application as submitted and grant the licence, perhaps with modifications and special conditions, or he can decline the application. Whatever decision he makes is subject to appeal. An independent body called the Aquaculture Licences Appeals Board will, most likely, consider the application. I say that because virtually every salmon farm licensing application made over the past 20 or 30 years has required the services of the board. That would kick in if, 30 days after the Minister makes his decision and publishes it, a member of the public or an organisation wished to lodge an appeal. The Department is still considering the application and taking advice from various State experts and bodies and we await the outcome. As the applicant we do not know how long the process will take and will have to wait and see what happens.

We have had quite a number of very serious expressions of interest from investors in the event that we obtain a licence. All of the major global salmon farming players, together with a number of other consortiums, have expressed serious interest in being BIM tenants if and when a licence is granted. We are pretty confident that the commercial development will become a reality if and when we succeed in achieving the required licence.

With regard to locations, we are investigating locations on the River Lee and near Inishturk and Inishbofin off the Mayo coast. We are at the point where we are receiving further data packs from our colleagues in the Marine Institute and will be able to determine whether there are viable and suitable salmon farming sites in those locations. We do not know, as yet, whether the locations will be suitable. Obviously we will only submit an application if and when they do. We will be cautious and careful in that regard. I can say that even if there are suitable sites they will be smaller and not on the scale of Galway Bay.

Deputy Ferris expressed concern about communities. BIM has worked hard to meet everybody who has an interest or a query on the Galway Bay project and the subsequent projects. We have spent many evenings on the islands and have talked to island communities and the inshore fishing community all around Galway Bay. For our sins, we have also attended a number of meetings with angling interests that have been less friendly and civilised than the meetings that we have had elsewhere, but that is their position and point of view.

BIM will continue to work hard at trying to reassure people and put forward our position on the project. Based on the work packages given to us by the Marine Institute, the science tells us that the project can be brought forward without a significant environmental impact and would not displace employment in other sectors. We are confident that will be the case.

It is proposed to build the project over time. It would not instantly go into full production. There would be an opportunity to see how it developed and whether there were issues or problems as it went along. I hope that I have dealt with most of the questions about salmon farms. Let me know if I have forgotten anything.

A number of questions were asked about seaweed. First, I shall distinguish between seaweed aquaculture, which is the growing of seaweed, and seaweed harvesting or gathering. There is a long-established tradition of seaweed gathering along the west coast that is largely based around the species Ascophyllum nodosum. That is the species that Senator Ó Domhnaill referred to. Údarás na Gaeltachta has had a long-standing engagement with that species of seaweed. It tends to be dried, processed and used in nutraceuticals and animal feeds and in supplements for golf course greens, racehorses, and so on.

A new industry around Laminaria or kelp was also mentioned, which is probably what the Senator was talking about. I believe a licence for harvesting it in the Bantry area is about to be granted. The National Parks and Wildlife Service and the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government have reservations about kelp harvesting in other locations. We should wait and see how the project goes.

Kelp grows lower down the shore and tends to be underwater all the time, so it is a different type of gathering than the intertidal gathering that is practised for Ascophyllum nodosum. BIM is most excited about, and most interested in, seaweed aquaculture, which is the project in Dingle that Mr. Whooley mentioned.

This is where we are creating new seaweed rather than harvesting existing seaweed resources. That is based around a species called Alaria esculenta. We have worked very hard with the promoters and other academic institutions so that we can now reliably produce this seaweed. It goes out on seeded ropes and long lines, quite similar to what members would be familiar with in the mussel industry. It produces a single high-value species which can be used for human consumption or it can be used for nutraceuticals or for veterinary products. It is a modest beginning but it is very exciting. This will be a big new area of activity.

In terms of the relationship with the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government, perhaps we might talk to Senator O'Keeffe in the margins about that.

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