A licence to Industrially Extract 1860 acres of Native Kelp in Bantry Bay has been issued to BioAtlantis, Tralee.
NO Public Consultation took place. This licence was NOT Advertised Adequately. This licence has been issued with NO requirement for an Environmental Impact Assessment [E.I.A.]
This is the largest industrial scale native Kelp Extraction Licence ever issued in Irish or British waters.
Send an Email or Letter to your local representative . Or if they have a Facebook Page go and leave them a comment.
Write your own message or simply "Copy and Paste" the sample text below. Make sure you replace the correct names in the bracketed "[your text]" areas.
Below is the list of the local Representatives and Minister Simon Coveney who issued this licence.
Please feel free to tell him what a misguided and shortsighted folly this is.
Remember this is OUR country and OUR natural resource and OUR responsibility to protect it for ourselves and future generations.
Minister Eoghan Murphy - eoghan.murphy@oireachtas.ie Click Here
[will open a shortened pre-filled email just insert your name]
Jim Daly TD - jim.daly@oireachtas.ie Click Here
[remember to insert your name]
Margaret Murphy O Mahony TD - margaret.murphyomahony@oireachtas.ie Click Here
[remember to insert your name]
Michael Collins TD - michael.collins@oireachtas.ie Click Here
[remember to insert your name]
Sample #2
Dear Minister Murphy,
Could you please engage with the people of Bantry who are very concerned about the proposed harvest of 1860 acres of native kelp in Bantry Bay, due to start soon.
Nearly 4,000 people have signed this petition and many have commented (see link beneath) - this proposed harvest is causing terrible upset to the residents of Bantry Bay and I, along with other concerned locals would welcome a meeting with you to discuss same as a matter of urgency.
Kind regards
[Your Name Here]
Sample #1
Dear [Your local TD]
A licence has been issued by the Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government for the stated harvesting of 1860 acres of kelp forest in Bantry bay, no Environmental Impact assessment is required for this license and no public consultation in any format took place before the issue of this licence. This will decimate the ecology of Bantry Bay. As you are aware we are on the Atlantic and have many storms each year and the buffer of the kelp forest will expose our shores/towns/villages to coastal erosion and possible flooding.
Bantry Bay is home to White Tailed Eagles, Cetaceans, Otters, Choughs and numerous bird and fish species and to allow the mechanical removal of 1,860 acres of kelp forest in our bay will seriously disturb the ecology of the bay. The people of Bantry only became aware of this issue following an episode of "EcoEye" on Monday 6th February 2017.
We, the residents of Bantry Bay have serious issue with this licence and wonder:-
1. How a licence (so large for mechanical harvesting of kelp) can be issued without an Environmental Impact Assessment (it is not a requirement of the terms of licence)?
2. Why were no public consultation meetings held (a tiny advert was in one paper which no one, including myself saw and we've found no proof of this advertisement)?
I look forward to hearing from you.
Kind regards
[Your Name Here]
"I can only compare these great aquatic forests of the southern hemisphere with the terrestrial ones in the inter-tropical regions. Yet if in any country a forest was destroyed, I do not believe nearly so many species of animals would perish as would here, from the destruction of the kelp
Amidst the leaves of this plant numerous species of fish live, which nowhere else could find food or shelter; with their destruction the many cormorants and other fishing birds, the otters, seals, and porpoises, would soon perish"
~ Charles Darwin
