Marine Institute hosts Birdwatch Workshop

The Marine Institute recently hosted a Birdwatch Ireland training workshop for the winter Irish Wetland Bird Survey (I-WeBS). The event was attended by 65 people and was used as a mechanism to introduce attendees to I-WeBS with a view to attracting prospective surveyors to the programme. The workshop comprised lectures at the Marine Institute headquarters in Rinville, Oranmore and fieldwork on the surrounding shoreline. 

Welcoming attendees to the event, Francis O’Beirn of the Marine Institute said: “The Marine Institute is delighted to host this workshop at our headquarters. The Marine Institute is located adjacent to the inner Galway Bay Special Protection Area which is an extremely important bird site. The I-WeBS programme is a National monitoring programme to count over-wintering shorebird species and is hugely important to the management of this and other Natura sites in Ireland. Furthermore, these important data are also used by the Marine Institute in their advisory role to the Department of Agriculture and Marine.”

Birdwatch Ireland were delighted with the ‘record attendance at the event highlighting the public appetite to support biodiversity’.

ENDS