Insights from Fair Seas Conference on World Ocean Day

Happy Marine Protected Area Day!

On #WorldOceanDay, I had the delight to MC the Fair Seas conference in Cork. It was an output-focused, diverse, inspiring and realistic set of conversations envisioned expertly by Aoife O' Mahony. Here is a summary of insights (aided by the uber-talented Robyn Deasy).

🐟 97% of life in the world is in the ocean

💙 30% growth of listed companies at Euronext in the blue economy since 2015

💶 the market cap of the blue economy in Europe is equivalent to the GDP of Belgium

👩‍🏭 1.4 million people employed in the sector across Europe

📶 We should take a "not everything, not everywhere, not all at once" approach, Ussif Rashid Sumaila

🥅 The aim is to get Ireland to #30x30 i.e. 30% of Ireland's ocean area would be a Marine Protected Area by 2030.

🤔 MPAs are less expensive, require less maintenance, and have more positive outcomes than one might expect", Mark Costello

🙋‍♀️ "It's critical to take care of the people affected by decisions you make including the fishing community, small retailers etc. The price can't be put on the shoulders who can least handle it. The process is as important as the final result", Valerie Hickey

🌎 "12% of the EU ocean area is MPA protected and that rises to 15% in the US and 24% in Latin America", Brian MacSharry

📑 "We need to work towards implementing the legislation beyond its current draft and consider the impact of that in every way including these ten asks https://lnkd.in/eKjHuCqZ ", Donal Griffin

🎙 "There is both a massive challenge and opportunity now", Sylvia Earle

🤝 "Political will is a renewable energy resource", Al Gore

👨‍👧 "Climate justice considers the impact of the actions taken to counteract climate change and we need to bring young people into the conversation", Eimear Manning, M.Sci.

🗺 "There are lots of international best practise", Joe Richards

👂 "The fishing community needs to be listened to like every other stakeholder", Siobhan Vye

📈 "MPAs lead to greater fishing stocks", Adrian Gahan

👁️‍🗨️ "Harnessing stakeholder engagement involves bringing people with you, encouraging everybody to share what they want, asking "who is not at the table", uncovering roots of distrust, determining what can be done to catalyse the conversation and following up on actions", Oonagh Duggan, Bernie Connolly, Niall Mac Allister, Kieran Healy and Niall McManus

📋 "We need to learn, legislate, measure and protect", Micheal O'Cinneide

Thank you Aoife O' Mahony, Donal Griffin, Jack O'Donovan Trá, Alanagh Tennanty, Margaret O' Regan, Jenny O' Flynn for the absolute joy and pleasure to work with you and giving me the opportunity to be part of this occasion.