Report is a “strong endorsement” of Industry
Dublin, Wednesday, 1 May 2002.
Mr. Hugh Byrne, Minister of State at the Department of the Marine and Natural Resources has welcomed a new report on the Irish aquaculture industry describing it as further welcome evidence of the essential sustainability of Irish salmon farming and expressing his confident belief in a future for Irish aquaculture which would be both challenging and successful.
According to the Minister of State, the Aquafact Review essentially constitutes a strong endorsement of the basis on which Irish aquaculture has been developed over recent years as well as a reasonably confident scientific platform from which to contemplate further growth into the future. “Much of substance has clearly already been achieved and, in the nature of things, much remains to be developed and taken further forward” the Minister of State said. “That is why I welcome in particular today the publication of the peer- reviewed Study by Aquafact International Services Ltd of over 100 individual environmental impact site reports on Irish finfish farms - its scrutiny and tracking of environmental developments associated with finfish farming will assist the Department, the Agencies and the industry collectively in the ongoing refining and honing process essential to making aquaculture’s environmental impact ultimately as near to negligible as it is feasible to make it.”
“Finfish farming is an indigenous resource-based industry which depends fundamentally on a clean environment as a prerequisite for the production of top-class product. Here in Ireland we are blessed in our production conditions” said Mr. Byrne. “However we are not content as an industry merely to indulge in rhetoric. Over recent years a focused and concerted practical effort has been underway to ensure that nothing will be left to chance in maintaining and enhancing these conditions of production.”
Minister Byrne also referred to the stringent management practices and controls already in place governing the operation of Irish fishfarms. These have been supplemented in the last two years by a number of Protocols designed to further underpin the highest environmental standards for the industry.
“I congratulate the industry on the initiative they have shown in commissioning this important and objective review exercise by leading consultants in the field and I likewise congratulate everyone involved in the sustainable development of Irish aquaculture, from Department through to Agencies and representative Bodies, down to individual operators, for embodying collectively a commendable and forward-looking sense of enterprise and environmental responsibility that could well serve as a model for others to emulate.”
ENDS.
For further information, please contact:
Tony Bass
Media & Communications Manager
Department of the Marine and Natural Resources
Leeson Lane
Dublin 2
Tel: +353-(0)1-619-9471
Fax: +353-(0)1-676-6161
Or
Tom Mc Loughlin
Press Officer
Department of the Marine and Natural Resources
Leeson Lane
Dublin 2
Tel: +353-(0)1-619-9662
Fax: +353-(0)1-676-6161