Cork, 11 Oct. 2012: At a leading marine research conference in Cork today, Irish Minister for Natural Resources, Fergus O’Dowd, will re-launch the Inland Fisheries Ireland vessel, the Cosantóir Bradán, in her new role as a marine survey vessel. The Cosantóir Bradán will now be employed as part of INFOMAR, the national marine mapping programme, being conducted by the Geological Survey and Marine Institute and funded by the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources.

The INFOMAR Annual Conference “Enabling our Ocean Management” takes place at University College Cork (UCC) on Thursday and Friday October 11-12th. In addition to the vessel commissioning, the two day seminar includes a range of talks across areas such as ocean energy, hydrography and survey operations, aquaculture and fisheries, applied research, environment and heritage. For a full program of talks CLICK HERE.

“I am particularly pleased to be able to attend the INFOMAR 2012 seminar to carry out the re-launch of the Cosantóir Bradán, “ the Minister said today. “It showcases the re-use and resultant cost saving made through the re-assignment of a state asset, in line with the changing requirements in areas where the department has responsibility.’” he added. The Cosantóir Bradán, will now become part of providing the baseline mapping infrastructure in Irish nearshore waters, upon which future fisheries and government marine policy decisions will rely.”

Ciaran Byrne, CEO of IFI pointed out, “The Cosantóir Bradán is now available for re-deployment due to the changing requirements for the protections of our inshore salmon fisheries. As a result of the cessation of drift net fishing at sea operations have switched to the use of faster inshore vessels which are more focused towards policing the fishery,” he said. “We are delighted to be able to facilitate the INFOMAR mapping programme, particularly as recipients and users of the updated maps being produced.”

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The INFOMAR Conference marks the end of a busy survey season for the INFOMAR programme with survey data acquired from all four of Ireland’s coastlines including; Dundalk Bay, Co. Louth (with the InterReg IVA INIS HYDRO Project), Bunmahon, Co. Waterford, Inish Bofin and Inish Turk, Co. Galway (with BIM) and Burtonport, Co. Donegal, (with Underwater Archaeology Unit at DoEHLG) and offshore, mapping with the Marine Institute’s Celtic Voyager in the Celtic Sea as well as completing the Priority Irish Sea area.

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ABOUT THE INFOMAR CONFERENCE AND SEMINARS

The first day of talks begins with the INFOMAR programme highlights for 2012 specifically data acquisition, data management, data integration and interpretation, in addition to value added applications. The Ocean Energy session will see a focus on marine renewable energy with talks from the Irish Maritime and Energy Resource Cluster, UCC, in addition to site selection examples from offshore Mayo, Clare and Galway. Irish company RealSim, specialising in integrating high resolution survey data with the simulation power of games engine technology, will present two simulated marine environments, one for a new harbour development, and another for a conceptual off-shore wind turbine site. Each shows different applications of game engine based physics to aid the planning and development process in marine environments. Presentations under the ‘Environmental and Habitat Mapping’ theme will highlight the EU’s Green Paper “from seabed mapping to ocean forecasting”, the Marine Strategy Framework Directive, the UK marine conservation zone and an overview of INFOMAR data being used in an international context. Under “Aquaculture and Fisheries” various topics will be presented including a representative from an Bord Iascaigh Mhara who will discuss deep sea fish farming, the use of INFOMAR data for modelling and site selection will be presented along with a presentation from a member of the Norwegian’s seabed mapping and environmental programme – MAREANO. The final talk of the day will showcase INFOMAR’s latest survey vessel, the Cosantóir Bradán.

For more information on the INFOMAR Annual Conference see www.infomar.ie