A seabed survey is to be carried out on the Shannon Estuary as part of the National Marine Mapping Programme (INFOMAR), it has been announced.

Local TD Tony Killeen said the survey would help ensure shipping lanes are safely charted.

Covering some 125,000 square kilometres of underwater territory, the INFOMAR project is producing integrated mapping products covering the physical, chemical and biological features of the seabed.

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In the three years since it began, the project has conducted detailed surveys along the south and west coast and in the Galway, Sligo and Donegal Bays as well as other priority areas.

Mr Killeen said: "This is a world class undertaking which is providing crucial information towards the development of Ireland’s 220 million acres that lie under the sea.

"The decision to continue the project was taken following a full independent review of its first three years. The review, undertaken by PricewaterhouseCoopers, concluded that the benefits to the state of completing the project are between 4 and 6 times the cost," he added.

INFOMAR follows on from the Irish National Seabed Survey, which mapped all of Ireland’s deeper waters between 1999-2005, and taken together they represent one of the largest such projects undertaken anywhere in the world.

(PR/KMcA)