Colette Kelleher (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am going to share time with Senator Alice-Mary Higgins. I will take six minutes and she will take two. I am delighted to speak in support of what I call Senator Grace O'Sullivan's "motion on the ocean". I oppose the Government's diluted - pun intended - countermotion. As the song goes, although I will not be singing it, "thank God we are surrounded by water." However, it would seem from the evidence that informed the motion that we do not look after the beautiful ocean around our 7,500 km coastline.

Never in the history of humanity has the health of the oceans been more threatened. The decline of ocean health impacts on us all. The decline impacts on the very livelihoods that depend on the sea. It impacts on the life that tries to live in the sea. I still remember my children's chant when they were little and going to the seaside: "I can see the sea, I can see the sea." I remember the excitement, that magic moment as we turned a corner of a twisty road and the ocean spread out twinkling before us. How are we looking after our ocean that charms us so? Not very well. Many scientists and experts from all over the world agree that we are potentially entering the sixth mass extinction of sea creatures. The International Programme on the State of the Ocean report 2013 warns of the high risk of entering a phase of extinction of marine species unprecedented in human history.This is due to a combination of pollution, ocean warming, overfishing, acidification and de-oxygenation. Our neglect threatens the very abundance of the ocean, an abundance that we can no longer take for granted. Marine dead zones are now a reality thanks to pollution. We estimate that there are at least 20 in Ireland, including in many of our best known estuaries, for example, estuaries of the River Blackwater and River Bandon in Cork, and Castletownbere Harbour.

Oceans produce between 50% and 85% of the oxygen we breathe. They are a sink for carbon, taking up approximately one third of all CO2 generated by human activity. The resulting drop in pH is having a drastic effect on marine ecosystems. Europe is facing major shellfish losses due to acidification. The 2016 Environmental Protection Agency noted that acidification effects were being observed in Ireland's offshore surface waters. The dangers are here.

Thanks to the prescient Micro-plastic and Micro-bead Pollution Prevention Bill 2016 introduced by my colleague, Senator Grace O'Sullivan, two years ago and with a little help from Sir David Attenborough, we now know more about the scale of plastics pollution and its devastating consequences. Some 8 million tonnes of plastic leak into the oceans each year, the equivalent of dumping a truck of plastic into the sea every minute. If we keep on going this way, there will be more plastic than fish in the oceans by 2050 and 99% of seabirds will have ingested plastic. Our wanton neglect of the oceans has been bad for dolphins too, with a 350% increase in dolphin strandings in the past ten years.

We can do something if we act as this motion sets out. Dr. Malin L. Pinsky, a marine biologist at Rutgers University, stated: "The impacts are accelerating, but they're not so bad we can't reverse them." There is hope. I have seen first-hand rivers like the Lee, which used to stink, being brought back to life. There is now the Lee Swim. Rivers like the Sullane in Macroom, where I learned to swim, are clean again. They are places where people can swim once more. We can and must do this for our oceans too, particularly the oceans around our lovely country.

I call on the Minister of State to support the motion and to consider the unanimity in the House. The cornerstone of the motion is its call on the Government to introduce an oceans Act to protect 50% of Ireland's seas and oceans with a community-driven ecological network of diverse and significant marine protected areas, MPAs, by working bottom-up rather than top-down with those who live and work in communities, as was usefully outlined by Dr. Ruth Brennan at yesterday's meeting and echoed by Senators Ruane and Black, and by designating places like Galway Bay, Tralee Bay and Roaringwater Bay. Let us honour commitments to legislation and the numerous EU and international agreements that we have signed up to and to which we are obligated.

As outlined in the motion, something else we can do is establish a moratorium on the granting of any licence for deep-sea mining and fossil fuel exploration in protected Irish waters and prohibit seismic testing within any range of protected areas that would have a deleterious effect. Let us instead grow and support innovative research and breakthroughs in sustainable energy opportunities.

I ask Senators, please, to support this motion on the ocean which I was proud to co-sign with my Civil Engagement colleagues. Let us look after much better the ocean that we are lucky enough to have all around us. Let us reverse the damage and pass on our beautiful seas to the next generation in a healthier state, teeming not with plastic and pollution but with life.