Dr. Peter Heffernan:

On factory ships and the context of monitoring activity at sea, there is another agency which is better placed to comment on what is or is not happening there. It is not part of the portfolio of the institute to deal with the monitoring of an activity other than to feed into all of the stock assessments. I am not aware of any waste product issue that has been flagged in recent times but we will certainly be there to provide any advice or assessment called for or needed by the management authorities or the Department in that regard. All international vessel activity that happens in Irish waters is monitored through the Naval Service and tracking systems and is ultimately available. There is a picture - not in real time, but post - so that one can assess stocks.