Ireland has pledged "30 by 30" - to place 30% of its vast maritime territory under legal protection by 2030 - a commitment under the UN biodiversity framework to halt species decline and restore marine ecosystems.
Yet, with endangered basking sharks already turning up dead off Co Clare, and other EU states mapping their protected zones, the legislation to create and enforce Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) is still absent.
And with Ireland set to hold the EU Presidency next year, the pressure to deliver is mounting.
Basking sharks are an endangered species, designated for protection in Irish law.
This large species of fish has generated huge interest in recent years, given their propensity to gather in the waters off Co Clare for what is believed to be a mating ritual.
It's thought basking sharks don’t do this anywhere else in the world, and Irish legislators have recognised they need protection under the Wildlife Act. The large sharks typically gather during August and September and swim as groups in circles.
Marine biologists believe what the sharks do is a form of speed dating, a courtship ritual, but they don’t know for sure and continue to study the annual gathering to better understand it.
"You have males in one layer, and then females in another layer," said Dr Nick Payne, a marine biologist, and Associate Professor of Zoology at Trinity College.
"This gathering is referred to as a Torus, and it goes down in the water for 20-30 metres, so you have many basking sharks under the water, as well as the ones close to the surface. The layers are structured by sex, which is super interesting," Dr Payne added.
Yet knowing this endangered species gathers off the Irish coast during two months of the year as a precursor to mating has not led to all of them surviving the visit to Irish territorial waters.
In recent weeks, images of dead basking sharks were taken on the seabed off the Clare coast.
The images were filmed by ecologist and underwater photographer Nick Pfeiffer. The photographs captured sharks with rope and fishing equipment wrapped around their bodies.
"We have to do better here," Mr Payne, a self-confessed 'shark nerd’, said in reference to Mr Pfeiffer’s images.
"If you'd to pick the one place in the world and the one time where it's the worst place to have things in the water that can kill these animals, that's the place," he added.
While the images show only a few dead basking sharks, Dr Payne fears the actual number could be much higher.
"The thing that concerns me is, this was just a couple of divers in the water at this one place, and they saw a couple of dead animals. Are there hundreds out there being killed like this every September, every August?" he asked.
There has long been competition for space in Irish waters - between the species that live there and the human activities, particularly fishing, that depend on them - and some experts say well-designed Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) could ultimately benefit both.
Ecologist Pádraic Fogarty says that stopping or curtailing fishing in certain places would lead to regeneration and then more fish being caught in other waters, in what’s known as ’the spill-over effect.’
"Many of the fishermen I spoke to will recognise that there's been a great decrease in the amount of fish in the sea over the years," Mr Fogarty says.
"As near as we have to a magic solution to get fish back into the sea is MPAs. Basically, it's to stop fishing, or at least to reduce the fishing in particular areas. That's been proven to work all over the world, but we haven't tried it in Ireland yet," Mr Fogarty added.
Currently, close to 10% of Irish waters are designated as special areas of conservation, some of which are expected to be counted towards the 30% target.
But identifying new sites and consulting with coastal communities will be crucial — a task made more urgent, Mr Fogarty says, by how far Ireland trails its European neighbours.
"Ireland has been a laggard in terms of achieving protection in coastal waters," Mr Fogarty said.
"Many countries around Europe already have that 30% designated. So at least the lines are on the maps. England, Sweden, Denmark, Greece, among others are moving towards the actual protection. This means removing bottom trawling from Marine Protected Areas: MPAs mean absolutely nothing if there's going to be bottom trawling in them," he added.
Bottom trawling involves pulling heavy fishing nets along the ocean floor to catch fish and other marine species.
Scientists consider such trawling to be one of the most destructive methods of fishing, causing ecosystem loss, and the release of carbon stored in the seabed.
Séamus O’Flaherty operates 19 trawlers out of Kilmore Quay, Co Wexford, working fishing grounds 65-190km offshore where his crews trawl the seabed for catch.
He employs around 100 people on the trawlers and at his fish processing plant and says the local economy is wedded to the sea, and has been for centuries.
Responding to criticism of bottom trawling, he maintained it was "not a bad thing".
"What we do is we stir up the ground and that will regenerate very quickly. As soon as the boat has passed over it, other fish go straight in to see what's been stirred up," Mr O'Flaherty said.
He also likened this type of trawling to a farmer ploughing a field, but Mr Fogarty disagrees.
"Bottom trawling is one of the most destructive forms of fishing we know. Trawling isn't farming, it's hunting and gathering and using industrial techniques. What it's doing is just ripping all of the life off the sea floor. And this is why so much of our seas are dead," he said.
Mr O’Flaherty and his crews already know about MPAs, navigating around them when they enter UK waters between Wexford and the Scilly Isles. In those areas, no-fishing zones are clearly enforced.
Stalled legislation
Back in Ireland, however, the legislation to match the UK and other EU states is yet to materialise, despite a pledge by the previous Fianna Fáil–Fine Gael–Green coalition.
Former biodiversity minister Malcolm Noonan of the Green Party says it was one of his political regrets that he didn’t get the legislation over the line before the last government ended.
"We fought hard, it was in the program for government. We worked diligently to try and get it through, but unfortunately, we ran out a road at the end," Mr Noonan said.
"It was a drafting problem. It's a very complex piece of legislation. There's a lot of competing interests. There's offshore renewables, cables, discussions around deep sea mining, all of these things. The critical thing is to have management plans in place for those sites and ensure that we can protect them, that they can be patrolled, that our Naval Service is equipped to do its work in terms of enforcement," he added.
The enactment of laws to underpin MPAs was recommended by a government convened expert group in 2019.
The man who led that group, Professor Tasman Crowe of University College Dublin (UCD), says he was disappointed that legislation has yet to be enacted.
"It's a great shame that the legislation has been delayed for so long. People are looking for legislation that has real teeth, but there's a high level of stakeholder engagement and transparency as well," Prof Crowe said.
Consulting with fishermen and others whose livelihoods depend on the fishing industry will be key to making any future MPAs a success.
Fishing organisations that spoke to Prime Time say that more detail is needed about where such MPAs might be enacted, and what limitations might be proposed within various zones.
In Kilmore Quay, Séamus O’Flaherty said he agreed with that view.
"The devil will be in the detail. With MPAs you have to ask ‘What are you protecting from?’ We already effectively have MPAs close to the coast because you cannot trawl within twenty miles of here because of the islands off the coast. A lot of people who propose these things haven’t been out at sea," he said.
At the UN Oceans Conference in Nice, France in June this year, Taoiseach Micheál Martin repeated the pledge that Ireland is moving to protect 30% of its marine area by 2030.
"By restoring our marine ecosystems and supporting sustainable fishing, we will not only protect our marine environment but also preserve and strengthen all the special communities that call the coast their home," he said.
The need to do something is stark, and Ireland has international responsibilities. The waters Ireland is responsible for – from the Irish and Celtic Seas to vast sections of the Atlantic Ocean - are ten times our landmass.
One example is a planned ban, due from October next year, on inshore sprat fishing by vessels over 18 metres. Sprat are a key food source for marine life including whales and dolphins. The Government has described the measure as a significant step, though some campaigners argue it should go further with a complete ban.
Future challenges
As we wait to see what legislation is coming to enact MPAs, Prof Crowe said there are several threats to marine life which must be considered.
"Overharvesting and damage to the seabed by certain forms of fishing are widely considered the most significant threats to marine life. In our coastal environments our ecosystems are being degraded by pollution, run off from the land, and broadly our marine systems are also under pressure from invasive species and particularly from climate change," he said.
The challenges for all are not to be underestimated. Even the most sustainable forms of fishing, using pots to fish for crabs and lobster, are proving ever more difficult, with many fishermen spending longer at sea for less return.
Fishermen, like Séamus O’Flaherty, say that if change is coming, communities need to be part of the conversation.
"People have lived here in Kilmore and prospered here since the 1840s on fish that they caught. You can’t wipe that out."
A report on Marine Protected Areas by Barry Cummins and producer/director Tara Peterman is broadcast on the 23 September edition of Prime Time at 10.35pm on RTÉ One and the RTÉ Player.
