Fair Seas Conference panel
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What are the current challenges facing humpback whales in Irish waters?
We're all about the oceans on Countrywide this morning, and there should have been lots of humpback whale sightings by this time of year off the Irish coast, but there have only been two in the whole of 2026 so far. Humpbacks come to Ireland for the sprat, the... form 70% of their diet. But there is now no SPRAT quota for small boats in Irish waters. They can be fished without limitation. When we catch them, we grind them up to feed to farmed salmon. It's another one of the reasons that we need marine protected areas for species to breed without any interference from humans. So, last best hope for a sea in crisis. But MPAs, Marine Protected Areas, would also be a significant new onus on a fishing fleet, as you've been hearing, already heavily burdened by rule and restriction whenever they put to sea.
There were plenty of people in Cork this week from around the world with experience of managing MPAs so that they put plenty more fish in the sea without driving fishing boats off the water. They were at the Fair Seas Conference for World Oceans Week. I talked to three of them, beginning with Mina Epps from the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. That's the global organisation of governments, non-profits and scientists that's best known for drawing up the red list of endangered animal species. I asked her what the oceans are saying to us about their health. What are our oceans saying to us now about their health?
Yes, they're screaming at us. I think they've been so generous to us, providing all these services. But at the moment, it's almost if you speak to oceanographers and biologists alike, when it comes to the ocean, it's all about adaptation, really.
What kind of an intervention can we make now that will make any sort of a difference?
I mean, nature has an extraordinary ability to kind of recover itself and heal. It's just that the pace and the destruction and the damage that we've done to the ocean has been in such a fast pace that you don't have the time to adapt. As I always say, when we need to recover and restore ocean health, you need to start with removing the threats, build resilience and enhance recovery. And enhancing recovery is at scale. And we need investment and resources to do that and will continue.
And what role could marine protected areas play in that?
We are facing a triple planetary crisis with climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution. So I think that the ocean holds also a lot of solutions to those. So maybe if we protect 30%, we might still need an additional 20% and buffer. The ocean has been one of our greatest allies so far.
Is the figure of 30% by 2030 one that is backed up by any science, or was it just a figure that was chosen on the basis of what might be politically achievable?
I say that the target was absolutely based on science as a minimum. That's why I said at least 30%.
How do marine protected areas (MPAs) contribute to ocean health?
But in order to get any kind of agreement or global targets, these are politically negotiated. So the outcome is a negotiated outcome. Like the actual target was 10%. That was not the scientific indication. That was a negotiated outcome.
Marine protection will mean different things in different parts of the world, but what are the baselines here for what a marine protected area should be?
So that's why an international definition is so important. So IUCN already in 1974 put out a definition of what is a marine protected area. And there are different categories going all the way from strict and highly protected all the way to basically allowing even oil and gas exploration. So you have a whole different category. But in order to be affected, we need highly and fully protected marine protected areas.
Belinda Brownlee, from the Protected Areas Foundation, you have a lot of experience in the United Kingdom now of what does and doesn't work when it comes to providing marine protection. What does work?
I think what I see working in the UK is community-led efforts, particularly from individuals that have an investment in that marine space, be they fishermen, be they recreational fishers, tour operators, local businesses that depend on the ocean.
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