Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for attending and for the sobering information. It has been a bit depressing to hear about the reduction in the numbers of different species.

The reduction in numbers, such as salmon going from 1.7 million down to 150,000, is depressing. One hundred and fifty thousand is nothing. It is pretty heartbreaking. It seems as though humanity, in every move it makes, contributes towards the demise of more species, whether they are fish, birds or mammals. Having said that, there are measures that seem to be working in different areas. We will come back to those.

I welcome Professor Whelan in particular. If people find his voice familiar, it is because he is a regular contributor to "Mooney Goes Wild", a terrific show for highlighting biodiversity in Ireland. It is the only dedicated weekly show that I know of. Professor Whelan had a great session recently on the marine heat wave and how it is impacting species and causing them to move. There was a specific feature on ocean sunfish and their prevalence in Irish waters, which is possibly linked to heatwaves. Some species, including some of our pelagic species, are moving north, perhaps to the area off the west coast of Scotland. This brings me to my first question. There has been much focus on how barriers affect migratory species and contribute to a reduction in numbers. Is there an assessment of how much barriers are contributing by comparison with the increase in water temperature and phenomena such as marine heatwaves? Atlantic salmon spend a great deal of their time in the ocean. Do we have a breakdown as to how much each factor is contributing, taking the examples of barriers and the marine temperature increase, in particular?