Tweet
Irish sea-fishing policies are aiding an environmental disaster
and wasting millions of euro of public money, writes Eamon Ryan
The days of fresh cod with chips are almost gone. Cod in the Irish
Sea is now on the verge of extinction and the evidence from the
Grand Banks in Canada is that once stocks go below a certain level
they will never recover, even if fishing is stopped completely.
Despite a call from scientists for an end to fishing for cod in
Irish waters, our trawlers continue to head out in the vain hope
that there might still be some fish out there that have, so far,
got away.
This instinct in a skipper to do whatever he can to catch fish can
be understood by anyone who has ever held out a rod and line.
However, left unchecked it has led to the massive overexploitation
of our sea fisheries as powerful new engines, and new sonar and
hauling devices, allow boats hunt down even the breeding stock for
the next generation of fish.
The blame for this evolving scandal lies more properly with the
politicians who have routinely ignored the scientific advice and
instead looked after the short-term interests of the fishing
industry.
The madness of this approach is seen in the annual scramble to get
as much as possible out of the annual December European Council
negotiations on fishing quotas.
The central flaw in this European fisheries system is that it is
in effect a self-regulating regime. Individual quotas for boats
are allocated by fisheries producer groups rather than by an
independent auditing agency.
This makes it almost impossible for naval vessels to know whether
boats are fishing above their quota or not. While the regulation
logbooks are eventually filled out to match what is officially
expected, the actual landing of illegal (known as "black") fish
are believed to be a multiple of this legal quota.
Last week a Marine Institute scientist told an Oireachtas
Committee that the European Union figures and total allowable
catches were not based on science, but on something "plucked out
of the air", as scientists no longer believe the landing
statistics because of misreporting and under-reporting.
Recent allegations of illegal landings by Irish boats in the
Scottish port of Peterhead gave the first public indication of the
extent of the problem. Landings from Irish vessels worth up to €40
million were said to have been hidden in underground storage
facilities at a fish-processing plant and were never properly
recorded.
A further major problem is that fishermen routinely dump 50 per
cent of their catch overboard as unwanted dead fish. This is
because the fish are too small or may not conform with the quota
that a particular boat is licensed to catch.
These "discards" are never officially recorded, but they further
reduce the spawning stock for future generations. This makes a
mockery of any conservation policies that are being put in place.
The fishermen say they do not trust evidence being put forward by
the scientists, and at the same time scientists have an almost
impossible task, given that so much of current fishing activity
goes unreported.
The scandal for the Irish public is not only that we are
overseeing one of the greatest environmental disasters of our
times, but also that we are wasting hundreds of millions of
taxpayers money in the process. The value of the entire legal
catch landed in Irish ports in 2004 was only €200 million, while
the cost of fishery protection services alone was estimated at
some €110 million. Over the last five years the Government allocated some €50 million
of public money for the development of our fishing fleet. This
included the building of new vessels to target deep-sea stocks,
which the scientists are now demanding be closed down as
unsustainable fisheries. We have been catching fish that were up
to 180-years-old and which take 30 years to reach sexual maturity,
which makes them vulnerable to being wiped out in one generation.
The fishing has also destroyed many of the mid-Atlantic coral
reefs we have only recently discovered as these fisheries trawl
nets over one mile beneath the ocean surface.
The Government is now allocating €45 million to provide for the
decommissioning of the vessels in the same white fish fleet.
Some of the Wexford scallop boats being decommissioned were only
given licences in the last five years, when a cap on additional
fishing capacity in that fleet had already been recommended.
The Government also spent some €75 million in developing Killybegs
port to support the massive expansion of the mackerel and herring
fisheries. Some 12 new boats were introduced in the last five
years at the same time those stocks were clearly decreasing.
The official 45,000-tonne national mackerel quota could be caught
by the 24 supertrawlers based in Killybegs in a matter of days.
The Atlantic Dawn alone can carry 7,000 tonnes of fish.
Killybegs is like a ghost town, as landings have dried up since
the regulation of the port was tightened up following allegations
of illegal quota management by the fleet.
This huge expenditure of public money in supporting a system that
is in need of radical reform can no longer be tolerated. It is
also in the interests of the fishermen that a more transparent and
fair regulatory system exists so that no one boat owner can be
seen to have a particular advantage, and so that stocks survive
into the future.
A new Sea Fisheries Jurisdiction Bill has been introduced in the
Dáil to try and tighten up our enforcement regulations. However,
it is believed that Minister for State for the Marine Pat "the
Cope" Gallagher has being arguing within Fianna Fáil for a more
cautious approach to be taken. The Bill is back for discussion
again next week, when it is expected that several new amendments
will be proposed which could weaken its provisions.
It is a scandal that anyone would want the current situation to
continue rather than being dramatically reformed and overhauled.
If we keep going the way we are at present, we will end up with
nothing other than plankton and chips on our menu.
Eamon Ryan TD is Green Party spokesman for communications, marine
and natural resources
Irish Times 17/01/06
and wasting millions of euro of public money, writes Eamon Ryan
The days of fresh cod with chips are almost gone. Cod in the Irish
Sea is now on the verge of extinction and the evidence from the
Grand Banks in Canada is that once stocks go below a certain level
they will never recover, even if fishing is stopped completely.
Despite a call from scientists for an end to fishing for cod in
Irish waters, our trawlers continue to head out in the vain hope
that there might still be some fish out there that have, so far,
got away.
This instinct in a skipper to do whatever he can to catch fish can
be understood by anyone who has ever held out a rod and line.
However, left unchecked it has led to the massive overexploitation
of our sea fisheries as powerful new engines, and new sonar and
hauling devices, allow boats hunt down even the breeding stock for
the next generation of fish.
The blame for this evolving scandal lies more properly with the
politicians who have routinely ignored the scientific advice and
instead looked after the short-term interests of the fishing
industry.
The madness of this approach is seen in the annual scramble to get
as much as possible out of the annual December European Council
negotiations on fishing quotas.
The central flaw in this European fisheries system is that it is
in effect a self-regulating regime. Individual quotas for boats
are allocated by fisheries producer groups rather than by an
independent auditing agency.
This makes it almost impossible for naval vessels to know whether
boats are fishing above their quota or not. While the regulation
logbooks are eventually filled out to match what is officially
expected, the actual landing of illegal (known as "black") fish
are believed to be a multiple of this legal quota.
Last week a Marine Institute scientist told an Oireachtas
Committee that the European Union figures and total allowable
catches were not based on science, but on something "plucked out
of the air", as scientists no longer believe the landing
statistics because of misreporting and under-reporting.
Recent allegations of illegal landings by Irish boats in the
Scottish port of Peterhead gave the first public indication of the
extent of the problem. Landings from Irish vessels worth up to €40
million were said to have been hidden in underground storage
facilities at a fish-processing plant and were never properly
recorded.
A further major problem is that fishermen routinely dump 50 per
cent of their catch overboard as unwanted dead fish. This is
because the fish are too small or may not conform with the quota
that a particular boat is licensed to catch.
These "discards" are never officially recorded, but they further
reduce the spawning stock for future generations. This makes a
mockery of any conservation policies that are being put in place.
The fishermen say they do not trust evidence being put forward by
the scientists, and at the same time scientists have an almost
impossible task, given that so much of current fishing activity
goes unreported.
The scandal for the Irish public is not only that we are
overseeing one of the greatest environmental disasters of our
times, but also that we are wasting hundreds of millions of
taxpayers money in the process. The value of the entire legal
catch landed in Irish ports in 2004 was only €200 million, while
the cost of fishery protection services alone was estimated at
some €110 million. Over the last five years the Government allocated some €50 million
of public money for the development of our fishing fleet. This
included the building of new vessels to target deep-sea stocks,
which the scientists are now demanding be closed down as
unsustainable fisheries. We have been catching fish that were up
to 180-years-old and which take 30 years to reach sexual maturity,
which makes them vulnerable to being wiped out in one generation.
The fishing has also destroyed many of the mid-Atlantic coral
reefs we have only recently discovered as these fisheries trawl
nets over one mile beneath the ocean surface.
The Government is now allocating €45 million to provide for the
decommissioning of the vessels in the same white fish fleet.
Some of the Wexford scallop boats being decommissioned were only
given licences in the last five years, when a cap on additional
fishing capacity in that fleet had already been recommended.
The Government also spent some €75 million in developing Killybegs
port to support the massive expansion of the mackerel and herring
fisheries. Some 12 new boats were introduced in the last five
years at the same time those stocks were clearly decreasing.
The official 45,000-tonne national mackerel quota could be caught
by the 24 supertrawlers based in Killybegs in a matter of days.
The Atlantic Dawn alone can carry 7,000 tonnes of fish.
Killybegs is like a ghost town, as landings have dried up since
the regulation of the port was tightened up following allegations
of illegal quota management by the fleet.
This huge expenditure of public money in supporting a system that
is in need of radical reform can no longer be tolerated. It is
also in the interests of the fishermen that a more transparent and
fair regulatory system exists so that no one boat owner can be
seen to have a particular advantage, and so that stocks survive
into the future.
A new Sea Fisheries Jurisdiction Bill has been introduced in the
Dáil to try and tighten up our enforcement regulations. However,
it is believed that Minister for State for the Marine Pat "the
Cope" Gallagher has being arguing within Fianna Fáil for a more
cautious approach to be taken. The Bill is back for discussion
again next week, when it is expected that several new amendments
will be proposed which could weaken its provisions.
It is a scandal that anyone would want the current situation to
continue rather than being dramatically reformed and overhauled.
If we keep going the way we are at present, we will end up with
nothing other than plankton and chips on our menu.
Eamon Ryan TD is Green Party spokesman for communications, marine
and natural resources
Irish Times 17/01/06
Comment