Posts Tagged ‘Marine Protected Areas’

Creating a Managed Marine Protected Area off County Wicklow, Ireland

Saturday, February 20th, 2016
Ashley Hayden boat fishing off Greystones, Co. Wicklow, Ireland.

My family roots lie firmly in Greystones, Co. Wicklow, Ireland, a once thriving fishing village situated 25 miles south of Dublin city on Ireland’s east coast. I possess experiential knowledge of the offshore fishing grounds comprising the Moulditch Ridge, Kilcoole Bank and the Breaches Shoal (all located south and east of Greystones) dating back to the late 1960′s.

I am familiar with the local marine traditions and I am fully aware what has been lost due exclusively to bad fisheries management decisions encapsulated by habitat destruction the resultant of licenced mussel dredging which commenced back in the early 1980′s.

I have a vision to establish a “community driven” Marine Protected Area (MPA) between Bray Head ( to the north) and Wicklow Head (to the south) encapsulating both holistic and socio - economic principles.

Best practice would suggest that the process to achieve this viable proposal will require most likely the setting up of a “driver organisation” possibly a registered charity with philanthropic and or EU funding to underpin it linked to a campaign ran by the wider local community while being supported by the state, which will include all vested interests and not just a narrow “marine” focus.

The MPA will be for “all” the people locally, nationally and from abroad.

The MPA will act as a pilot project which if successful can then be incorporated as a modal for best practice inshore fisheries management and subsequently rolled out nationally.

I envisage that:
  • Management of the MPA will include an academic research mandate to aid “best management practice” as well as to further progress marine scientific knowledge.
  • That the inshore/offshore MPA will be an extension of the Wicklow National Park so making the County not only unique nationally but also internationally.
  • That the MPA will extend out to the old three mile limit and its northern and southern limits will be designated by a virtual extension of the respective county lines.
  • That the MPA will not be exclusively “no take” but will allow, post a managed rehabilitation process, sustainable commercial artisan fishing methodologies, recreational sea angling and a variety of water sports and activities under a progressive management plan aimed to encourage local business and employment opportunities while both rehabilitating and preserving the integrity ongoing of North Wicklow’s offshore environment.
  • That within the MPA though there will be areas designated as “No Take” for both scientific and “spill over” purposes.
  • That when established in time the MPA will garner enormous credibility for Co. Wicklow internationally, will underpin efforts to maintain and increase onshore and offshore biodiversity, will resurrect a now defunct local artisan commercial fishing industry, will enable Co. Wicklow to market an International standard tourism sea angling product and will act as a catalyst for marine cultural, heritage, tourism, educational and recreational activities such as diving, sea kayaking, natural history engagement and small boat hire.
In short the investment in time and effort will be returned many fold.

I am proposing that the vision is worth adopting because:
  • It will be a unique step for a county (public and private entities) to recognise and claim ownership of an offshore coastal resource with a view to managing its usage and future rehabilitation/development as an integral and symbiotic element of onshore economic development.
  • Rehabilitation of the inshore benthic habitats off Co. Wicklow will enable the county to market and sell itself abroad internationally as a local community that really cares for and understands the socio - economic benefits of pristine natural environments.
  • That the County Council supported by Public and Private interests can lead the way in proposing and developing a forward thinking “coastal county by coastal county” approach to national inshore fisheries management where community and state Dept’s/Agencies work side by side to manage and develop “their inshore/offshore patch” collectively on behalf of the nation.

Yours sincerely,

Ashley Hayden

 

Analysis of Specimen Sea Fish Records for Co. Wicklow 2011 – 2015

Friday, February 12th, 2016

The argument to introduce wider stakeholder inclusive and environmentally focused management structures for Ireland’s inshore fisheries is indisputable as this follow on analysis of an earlier study by Ashley Hayden based on Irish Specimen Fish Committee Records for the years 1975 – 2010 covering the inshore waters off north Co. Wicklow clearly shows:

The initial study found that 16 fin fish species swimming in north Wicklow coastal waters traditionally grew to rod and line specimen weight based on ISFC records, by 2010 this figure had declined to four species.

A follow on study by Ashley, recreated below, was undertaken in early 2016 covering the years 2011 – 2015. This research underpinned by the authors extensive historical and experiential local knowledge deepens and broadens the previous studies findings giving some hope for the future but also highlighting a continuous downward trend.

Specimen Fish Ratified for North County Wicklow 2011 – 2015.

Bass – 5.31.kg (11.70.lb) – Wicklow – 10/10/2014 – Keith Marsella – Crab

Bass – 4.62.kg (10.19.lb) – Greystones – 24/06/2012 – Damian Blackwell – Lure

Bull Huss – 7.82.kg (17.25.lb) – Wicklow – 17/07/2013 – Peter Schiffer – Mackerel

Flounder – 1.20.kg (2.65.lb) – Wicklow – 07/10/2014 – Stephen Gibson – Crab

Flounder – 1.12.kg (2.47.lb) – Wicklow – 06/10/2015 – Craig Murphy – Crab

LSD – 1.59.kg (3.50.lb) – Wicklow – 22/08/2013 – Bert McGregor – Mackerel

Thick L. Mullet – 3.27.kg (7.20.lb) – Arklow – 31/07/2014 – Craig Murphy – Bread

Thick L. Mullet – 3.18.kg (7.00.lb) – Wicklow – 01/07/2015 – Des Chew – Bread

Thick L. Mullet – 2.95.kg (6.50.lb) – Wicklow – 25/09/2015 – Ken Garry – Bread

Thick L. Mullet – 2.54.kg (5.60.lb) – Wicklow – 02/07/2015 – Des Chew – Bread

Thick L. Mullet – 2.49.kg (5.50.lb) – Wicklow – 21/06/2015 – Craig Murphy – Bread

Thick L. Mullet – 2.40.kg (5.30.lb) – Wicklow – 17/08/2015 – Des Chew – Bread

Thick L. Mullet – 2.32.kg (5.12.lb) – Wicklow – 20/07/2015 – Dan Smith – Bread

Thick L. Mullet – 2.27.kg (5.00.lb) – Wicklow – 11/08/2015 – Dan Smith – Bread

In total 10 x T. L. Mullet were ratified for County Wicklow in 2014.

In total 7 x T. L. Mullet were ratified for County Wicklow in 2013.

In total 3 x T. L. Mullet were ratified for County Wicklow in 2012.

In total 6 x T. L. Mullet were ratified for County Wicklow in 2011.

Grey mullet from the Vartry estuary, Co. Wicklow

Smooth Hound – 8.62.kg (19.00.lb) – Wicklow – 24/05/2015 – Garech Murphy – Crab.

In total 48 smooth hound were ratified for County Wicklow in 2015 with most being caught off Wicklow town on board Kit Dunne’s Wicklow Boat Charters, a small number being landed in the Arklow area. The smallest hound was 3.04.kg (6.70.lb) caught on the 12th July off Wicklow.

In total 21 smooth hound were ratified for Wicklow in 2014 the largest weighing 6.92.kg (15.25.lb) caught on squid 22/06/2014.

In total 63 smooth hound were ratified for Wicklow in 2013 the largest weighing 7.37.kg (16.25.lb) caught on crab 06/07/2013.

In total 40 smooth hound were ratified for Wicklow in 2012 the largest weighing 6.35.kg (14.00.lb) caught on crab 13/07/2012.

In total 5 smooth hound were ratified for Wicklow in 2011 the largest weighing 6.21.kg (13.69.lb) caught on squid 02/07//2011.

Spurdog caught on Kit Dunne's Wicklow Boat Charters off Co. Wicklow, Ireland.

Spur Dogfish – length only – Wicklow – 16/05/2014 – Pat Swan – Mackerel

In total 4 spur dogfish were ratified for Wicklow in 2014 all caught in May.

In total 4 spur dogfish were ratified for Wicklow in 2013 all caught in Oct/Nov.

In total 1 spur dogfish were ratified for Wicklow in 2011 caught in Nov.

T. B. Rockling – 0.86.kg (1.90.lb) – Wicklow – 15/11//2011 – Andrew Boyce – Mackerel

T. B. Rockling – 0.85.kg (1.88.lb) – Wicklow – 19/04/2015 – Belinda Kennedy – Mackerel

T. B. Rockling – 0.82.kg (1.80.lb) – Wicklow – 22/01/2014 – Craig Murphy – Mackerel

T. B. Rockling – 0.82.kg (1.81.lb) – Greystones – 03/04/2015 – Andrew Boyce – Mackerel

T. B. Rockling – 0.81.kg (1.79.lb) – Greystones – 09/03/2015 – Pat Fagan – Mackerel

T. B. Rockling – 0.79.kg (1.75.lb) – Greystones – 15/08/2015 – Andrew Boyce – Mackerel

In total 3 T. B. Rockling were ratified for County Wicklow in 2011.

Specimen female tope boated in October 2009, Greystones, Co. Wicklow, Ireland.

Tope – 22.23.kg (49.00.lb) – Wicklow – 22/07/2015 – Martin Corr – Crab

In total 7 more tope were ratified for Wicklow in 2015 with the smallest fish weighing 19.05.kg (42.00.lb) caught on 12/08/2015.

In total 12 tope were ratified for Wicklow in 2014 the largest weighing 29.03.kg (64.00.lb) caught on mackerel off Greystones 05/07/2014.

In total 21 tope were ratified for Wicklow in 2013 the largest weighing 24.66.kg (54.37.lb) caught on mackerel off Greystones 22/08//2013.

In total 3 tope were ratified for Wicklow in 2012 the largest weighing 27.30.kg (60.19.lb) caught on mackerel off Wicklow 20/10//2012.

In total 1 tope was ratified for Wicklow in 2011 weighing 22.68.kg (50.00.lb) caught on mackerel off Greystones 30/08//2011.

Specimen Size Species Recorded off County Wicklow 2011 – 2015

Number of Species: 9

  • Bass x 2
  • Bull Huss x 1
  • Flounder x 2
  • LSD x 1
  • Thick Lipped Mullet x 33
  • Smooth Hound x 177
  • Spur Dogfish x 9
  • Three Beard Rockling x 8
  • Tope x 44

Relative to the on going study tracking County Wicklow based specimen fish records going back to 1975, the number of specimens recorded post 2010 by species  has increased from 4 (bass, tope, smooth hound and grey mullet) to 9 ( the aforementioned species plus bull huss, flounder, LSD, spur dogfish and rockling).

The one newcomer to the list is flounder, the remaining four bull huss, LSD, spurdog and rockling all featuring on previous specimen lists for the area. Are these species making a comeback? Relative to flounder and T. B. rockling the species were always present just that people were not targeting them. An increase in specimen hunting effort where species are targeted in specific locations at specific times of the angling season has resulted in flounder making the list and also an upward movement in T. B. Rockling claims.

The presence of Wicklow Boat Charters post 2011 with subsequent increased effort aimed at so called “rough species” has resulted in a marked increase in smooth hound and tope claims and is definitely a factor in recent claims for specimen bull huss and LSD, both species always present albeit reduced in average size and population.

Spurdog are making a tentative comeback probably due to a current ban on commercial fishing for the species within Scottish waters. However when one considers how prolific this particular species was in spring and again in early winter certainly up to the early 1980’s, the jury is still out as to their ongoing recovery.

Matching Wicklow Boat Charters overall recorded catches for 2014 and 2015 to specimen fish returns for County Wicklow in the same year provides a more accurate picture of the inshore fishery off North County Wicklow.

Wicklow Boat Charters Catch Returns 2014

  • Tope – total boated 179 – total specimens ratified 12.
  • Smooth hound – total boated 912 – specimens ratified 21.
  • Bull huss – total boated 176 – zero specimens ratified.
  • Spur dogfish – total boated on a single outing 09/11/2014 = 55 – zero specimens ratified.

Wicklow Boat Charters Catch Returns 2015

  • Tope – total boated 185 – specimens ratified for Co. Wicklow 7.
  • Smooth hound – total boated 912 – specimens ratified for Co. Wicklow 48.
  • Bull huss – total boated 103 – zero specimens ratified for Co. Wicklow.
  • Spurdog – total boated 2 – “limited fishing due to bad weather

Tope and smooth hound populations would appear to be in a reasonably healthy state, on the ground evidence of pups from both species suggesting this status quo should continue. That said, this writer witnessed in 2015 a reduction in average size of smooth hound caught in the Arklow area and the presence of dead smooth hound in 40. kg fish boxes for use as whelk pot bait.

Significantly specimen bull huss and spur dogfish returns are low for the amount of boat man hours directed towards fishing large fish baits in key predator fish locations on board the two vessels operated by Wicklow Boat Charters, with only a few ray encountered (14 in 2014 by Wicklow Boat Charters).

On the plus side a lot of male pack tope are encountered earlier in the summer with larger female tope showing up from August through to October weather permitting.

Codling haul from Killoughter, Co. Wicklow, circa 1980's.

White fish returns on the north Wicklow fishing grounds though are very poor, the dearth of traditionally targeted edible species other than small grey and tub gurnards, which appear to be quite numerous, reflected in catch returns gleaned from Greystones Ridge Sea Angling Club competition records (boat and shore) for September 2015 & January 2016 respectively, all posted on Facebook.

Competition results courtesy of Greystones Ridge Sea Angling Club, January 2016.

A 24 cm dab, 26 cm flounder and a 33 cm whiting, all recorded in January 2016 post a shore competition off Five Mile Point with no sizeable codling or coalfish present speaks volumes as to how far biodiversity standards have dropped along the north Wicklow coastline in tandem with bottom mussel bed exploitation, the connection when one knows the fisheries history being indisputable as the above image courtesy of Liam Kane taken at Killoughter in the 1980’s makes clear.

Pre 1980 and the commencement of inshore bottom mussel dredging off County Wicklow 16 species of fish swam in the then abundant north Wicklow waters that grew on or above Irish rod and line specimen weight to include edible species such as cod, plaice, black sole, thornback and blonde ray. Today these species other than the odd juvenile are a distant memory, marine biodiversity reduced wholesale as the dredgers did their work.

Circa 2016 four species, bass, grey mullet, tope and smooth hound (all non quota species) still swim in reasonable numbers and grow to specimen size off Co. Wicklow, while flounder and T. B. rockling exist because they are non commercial and inhabit safe estuary and harbour wall locations respectively. Spurdog, LSD and bull huss though still run the gauntlet of commercial exploitation, a fate which currently threatens the future of the current mainstay Wicklow specimen species bass, grey mullet, tope and smooth hound as commercial interests continue to diversify their catch by fishing down the food chain as prime species become uneconomic due to over exploitation………

Further reading: The Inshore Fishery off North Co. Wicklow from an Angling Perspective.

Ireland’s Sea Fisheries Belong to All its Citizens

Monday, January 18th, 2016

My Grandfather Willie Redmond built clinker design boats in his shed behind Killians Hall a stones throw from the harbour in Greystones, Co. Wicklow, which was a great benefit to yours truly an outdoors loving young lad who gained access to a boat from a very early age. In my tenth year dad taught me to row, initially in and out between the moored boats in the harbour only letting me leave the confines of the pier head when I could show him that I could maneuver the craft to his satisfaction. The litmus test being that I could row between the said moored boats without touching them.

A young Ashley Hayden at the harbour Greystones in 1984 with his first born daughter Emma - Claire.

Around the same time I helped dad construct a long line out of heavy cotton line imported from Hong Kong to which were attached 100 mustad spade end hooks on two foot snoods at 12′ intervals. Dad’s modus operandi became clear in the late summer of 1971 when in early September we shot the line in a zig zag pattern off St David’s school, me rowing with the last of the ebb tide while dad payed out the baited hooks before two hours later as the flood tide commenced roles reversed dad rowed and I hauled, a series of large red spotted plaice flapping over the gunnels. The boy was hooked.

Today 45 years later I would be hard pressed as a young 55 years old grandfather of two wonderful grandsons to repeat the above exercise such is the decline that has occurred in Ireland’s inshore sea fisheries. If this decline had occurred due to natural causes one would not lament so, however the damage is solely man made. In 2007 I wrote a piece, “An Angler’s Tale” about that first day off Greystones in 1971 and considered how we all could work towards improving our sea fisheries so that my Grand Children might experience in some way the marine wonders that I saw, smelled, heard and felt as a young boy and latterly teenager.

Given that my first born grandson Myles is now three and second born Dillan is two months old that day is well nigh upon us and sadly Ireland’s marine fisheries have not improved, in fact things have only gotten worse. In the early 1980′s I considered the idea of artisan sea fishing out of Greystones but buried the notion very quickly as the writing was on the wall even then with regard to sea fisheries decline and I was only going to enter the industry if I could run a stand alone operation with no reliance on state or EU subsidies, what I caught governing whether I would sink or swim.

Would that other people had thought like that because today the Irish Government props up a failing industry due to political ignorance of how to manage effectively Ireland’s marine resource, political cowardice when it comes to the acceptance that the marine stakeholder brief is far wider than just those who choose to sea fish commercially and through State/EU funding continues to fuel an industrial sector that is mining itself into oblivion while stoking the raging bush fire of marine fisheries decline. By supporting the grossly undemocratic present marine fisheries development and management status quo the Irish Government and its servents are  denying my grandsons Myles and Dillan and their peers what is their natural heritage and birthright.

The industry talks about “Grandfather Rights”, well my two Grandsons have great great grandfather rights and it is about time that they were recognised. At this juncture there is little chance that either Myles or Dillan will be able to forge a career in marine sea fisheries either as commercial fisherman, charter skippers or sea angling guides such is the Irish Governments inadequate response towards rectifying the wanton destruction of what is arguably Ireland’s greatest natural resource. Myles, Dillan and their peers deserve better………….