SMARTSeaSchool Galway Bay Training Area

Galway City extends 10km east and west along the coast from its centre on the River Corrib. It is the home port for the RV Celtic Explorer and RV Celtic Voyager and can accommodate vessels up to 6000 tonnes. Access to the port basin is tidally constrained with sailing two hours before and after high tide. The  Port of Galway  imports petroleum products, bitumen and wind turbines. The main exports are limestone and scrap metal.  

Galway is a university city and a regional centre for technology manufacturing and service industries.

The city's arts, cultural activities and medieval heritage attract numerous visitors and its western hinterland is the largest gaeltacht region in Ireland.

The formation of Galway Bay is a continuing process initiated by the reversal of the last glacial maximum (27ka). The present extent of the bay was achieved in the late holocene (1.5ka). 

The geology of the bay is characterised by carboniferous limestone in the south and caledonian granite in the north overlain by glacial and marine sediments.

The sediment map of Galway Bay illustration is taken from  Geomorphology and substrate of Galway Bay, Western Ireland. Taylor & Francis. McCullagh, Denise; Benetti, Sara; Plets, Ruth; Sacchetti, Fabio; O’Keeffe, Eimear; Lyons, Kieran.  

Galway is a semi enclosed system with the Aran Islands damping frequent Atlantic storms. Water circulation is anticlockwise with the South and North Sounds being the main entry and exit points. 

On the north shore the river Corrib at Galway City provides the main freshwater input to the bay supplemented by series of lesser rivers along the east and north shores. 

In the south, the karst drainage system of the Burren discharges freshwater through a network submarine springs along the bed of the bay.

The panel from top shows water velocity along the bottom of the bay and is taken from Geomorphology and substrate of Galway Bay, Western Ireland  (  McCullough et al 2020 ) with east west salinity and temperature sections by  Rachel Cave  on a NUI Galway training survey using Ocean Data View ( ODV ) software.

 INFOMAR  is a joint project of the Marine Institute and Geological Survey for  mapping the coastal, shelf and deep-water environments  of Ireland’s Exclusive Economic Zone. Thanks to INFOMAR Ireland has the most completely mapped EEZ in the world and this includes high resolution maps of Galway Bay. 

 Mapping the seabed is possible because of advanced acoustic technologies, primarily Multibeam Echosounders. Acoustic depth (bathymetric) and reflectivity (backscatter) data from Multibeam Echosounders (MBES) on the  Celtic Voyager  and  Celtic Explorer  are visualised as fine scale bathymetric and seafloor characterisation maps. 

 The applications of MBES data and seafloor maps include:

·        Improving and correcting navigation charts for seafarers.

·        Locating and defining topographical features such as continental shelves, plateaus, ocean ridges, trenches, and plains.

·        Enable seafloor infrastructure such as coastal defences, cables, seafloor observatories, marine renewable energy, and aquaculture.

·        Habitat mapping for conserving biodiversity and the sustainable use of biological resources.

·        Inform policies climate change mitigation by classifying the carbon sequestration capacity of water masses and seafloor habitats.

·        Enable and contain the environmental monitoring necessary for the responsible utilisation of marine resources.

To view the map and other INFOMAR products go to:

 Galwa y  Bay Bathymetry 

 Galway Bay Shaded Relief 

 Galway Bay Backscatter 

The sediment mosaic of Galway Bay is arranged by transport pathways set up by the currents and waves. Tides are an integral component of these and in Galway Bay are semi-diurnal with two peaks of high and low water each day. Classifying and partitioning sediments coverage is a major output of  INFOMAR .

The physical and chemical properties of the sediments arise from the source material and processes that produce them. Their sorting and distribution is achieved by sediment transport pathways set up by the circulation system.

The physico-chemical properties of sediments are closely related to the benthic fauna found in them. "Most of the species diversity in marine ecosystems consists of invertebrates residing in (infauna) and on (epifauna) sediments" (Snelgrove 1999).

Benthic monitoring using grabs and cores is central to the Marine Strategy Framework Directive ( MSFD ), which guides marine environmental protection in the EU and  OSPAR  Convention states of the North Atlantic Ocean.

Under the MSFD, Good Environmental Status  (GES)  is described as "marine waters where these provide ecologically diverse and dynamic oceans and seas which are clean, healthy and productive” .

This sediment classification map by INFOMAR can be viewed in full  here .

Fisheries in the bay are dominated by small vessels (<13m) using pots and traps for crustaceans and bottom set tangle and gill nets for fin fish. Management is by minimum size restrictions and catch limits agreed by  stakeholder consultation  with state fishery agencies. 

Important and well documented fisheries in the bay include those for shrimp (Palemon serratus) and native oyster (Ostrea edulis). 

Ros a'Mhíl on the outer fringes of the bay is a  National Fisheries Harbour Centre .

Galway Bay is also an important spawning and nursery ground in the wider  Celtic Seas Ecoregion  fisheries management unit.  Every year fish assemblages in the bay are sampled by the  Irish Ground Fish Survey  which contributes to assessments of stocks in the ecoregion.

You can explore the ecosystem approach to fisheries management in Irish waters at this  Marine Institute project page .

The protection of natural habitats in Galway Bay is mandated by government legislation and two EU frameworks.

 National Heritage Areas  (NHA) are recognised under the 1976 Wildlife Act as areas containing habitats, plants or animals that are threatened by human activities. Over 630 sites encompassing 65,000 Ha were proposed in 1995 as NHAs in Ireland.

 Special Protected Areas  (SPAs) are mandated by the EU Birds Directive (  Directive 2009/147/EC ) and cover much of the inner bay. "This large coastal site is of immense ornithological importance, with two wintering species having populations of international importance and a further sixteen species having populations of national importance. The breeding colonies of Sandwich Tern, Common Tern and Cormorant are also of national importance. Also of note is that seven of the regularly occurring species are listed on Annex I of the E.U. Birds Directive, i.e. Red-throated Diver, Black-throated Diver, Great Northern Diver, Golden Plover, Bar-tailed Godwit, Sandwich Tern and Common Tern"    NPWS 2018  synopsis.

Galway Bay is also mandated as a Special Area of Conservation (SAC) under the EU Habitats Directive ( Council Directive 92/43/EEC ).   The Galway Bay SAC is "a large coastal site is of immense conservation importance, with many habitats listed on    Annex I of the E.U. Habitats Directive , four of which have priority status (lagoon, Cladium fen, turlough and orchid-rich calcareous grassland). The examples of shallow bays, reefs, lagoons and saltmarshes found within this site are amongst the best in the country. The site supports an important Common Seal colony and a breeding Otter population ( Annex II species ), and six regular  Annex I E.U. Birds Directive species . The site also has four Red Data Book plant species, plus a host of rare or scarce marine and lagoonal animal and plant species".     NPWS 2015  synopsis.

Areas designated by the Birds and Habitats directives form the  NATURA 2000  network of protected areas within the EU.

Responsibility for SPAs and SACs in Ireland resides with the Department of Culture, Heritage and Gaeltacht and its agency the National Parks and Wildlife Service ( NPWS ).

As of July 2020 Ireland has been referred to the  European Court  for failure to enact any protection measures for its 423 Special Areas of Conservation.

“The quality of Ireland’s surface waters (i.e. rivers, lakes, estuaries and coastal waters) and groundwater resources are assessed against the standards and objectives set out in the EU Water Framework Directive” ( EPA 2019 ). 

Data collection for monitoring and assessing surface water quality in Ireland is the remit of the Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA ). In Galway Bay coastal waters include the entire bay and the transitional waters extend to estuaries and estuarine lagoons such as  Lough Atalia .

The ecological state of the bay is determined by assessing the biodiversity and abundance of a range of aquatic organisms. These include phytoplankton, macroalgae, aquatic plants, macroinvertebrates and fish. Changes in the composition and abundance of these different communities are measured against what would be expected in the absence of pollution and impacts from human activities.

From the  Water Quality in Ireland 2013- 2018  EPA report:

• Transitional water bodies are the worst performing water category with only 38% in good or high ecological status and the remaining 62% in moderate, poor or bad status.

• Almost a quarter (23.3%) of estuaries and coastal waters failed the WFD assessment criteria for dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN).

• After many years of reductions, loadings of phosphorus and nitrogen to the marine environment have started to increase.

• Average total nitrogen and total phosphorus loads have increased by 8,806 tonnes (16%) and 329 tonnes (31%) respectively, since a low in 2012-2014.

SmartBay is a seafloor observatory for collecting and disseminating oceanographic data and a testing platform for new marine sensors and protype equipment.  

The SmartBay Observatory is an important contribution by Ireland to the growing global network of real-time ocean data capture systems.

The observatory is 1.5km off the coast at Spiddal. The observatory's cameras, probes and sensors continuously log chemical, physical and biological data. Real time data from the site is carried by fibre optic cable to the Marine Institute for internet upload.

Data includes a live video stream, depth, temperature and salinity, chlorophyll, and turbidity. Hydrodynamic variables includes tide, current and wave data.

Real time data is streamed at  https://smartbay.marine.ie/  .

Archival data is available at the Marine Institute webpage:  https://spiddal.marine.ie/data.html 

SMART Bay is a node of The European Marine Observation and Data Network ( EMODnet ) .

Stakeholders are any group or individual who benefit from or impact on the bay and its environment.

Identifying stakeholders and involving them in decision making is termed stakeholder engagement. For policy makers, stakeholder engagement is a “Societal Challenge” and a requirement for the sustainable marine economy envisaged by  Blue Growth , the EU strategy for the marine and maritime sectors.

The framework for Blue Growth at European scale is set out in the Maritime Spatial Planning Directive  (MSP)  . To facilitate MSP in Ireland the Irish government published a  National Marine Planning Framework – Baseline Report  in 2018.