Seabed Mapping
Ireland’s seabed territory is ten times the size of its land area.
INFOMAR is Ireland’s national seabed mapping programme which aims to map our seabed providing key baseline data to support coastal and inshore infrastructural and economic development across a broad array of sectors, including shipping and transport, marine tourism and leisure, marine renewable energy, and fisheries and aquaculture.
INFOMAR is one of the world’s largest and leading seabed mapping programmes.
What We Map
We produce data and maps of seabed depth, relief, composition and shipwrecks.
Marine Data
Why We Map
Our data is used to update navigation charts for safety at sea and provides key baseline data for Ireland’s marine sector.
Why Seabed Mapping Matters
Where We Map
The deeper offshore waters were mapped as part of the Irish National Seabed Survey (INSS) between 1999 and 2005.
INFOMAR are mapping the inshore areas.
Phase 1 (2006 – 2016) mapped 26 priority bays.
Phase 2 (2016 – 2026) is mapping the remaining dark blue areas with a focus on the south-west in 2020.
View map of survey areas (PDF)
How We Map
We map the Irish seabed, mostly using sonar systems on boats.
We use other methods of surveying in shallow areas, unsafe for boats including LiDAR (plane), Satellite Imagery and drones.
How we map (redirect to INFOMAR website)