EU ban on fish discards attracts guarded welcome in south
Tom Hassett, of Cork-based lobby group FishingForJustice.eu, welcomes the progress made on discards by Fisheries Minister Simon Coveney in Brussels last week. However, he says it will do little for fishermen unless Ireland is given “a fair share of the whitefish quota”.
The Irish fleet has quota to catch 1,727 tonnes of cod annually, versus 13,977 tonnes for France, 15,396 tonnes for Spain and 15,396 tonnes for the UK. Similar tenfold contrasts exist for haddock, whiting, megrim and monk, with a twentyfold gap for hake.
Unrelated to each state’s home population base, Ireland’s quota gap was first imposed in the 1980s because much of the Irish fleet comprised inefficient outdated 15m-long trawlers.
Irish Marine Institute figures show non-Irish vessels take 88% of all fish caught in Irish waters. Ireland still only has about 4% of the EU’s whitefish quota, even though the days of the 35-year-old wooden boats are long gone.
Under a mechanism known as the Hague Preferences, Ireland periodically regains some of its whitefish catch, but the numbers are too small to do much for the southern fleet. Fishermen in the north-west, who have about 87% of the overall Irish quota, are more focused on the pelagic catch.
“In the 1980s, we were told that when the fleet improved, our quota would increase. That never happened,” said Tom Hassett, who is also secretary of the Irish South & West Fish Producers Organisation.
“Ireland’s share remains very small. I can’t see why we can’t get a fair share of the fish caught in our waters. The Commission is saying these talks cannot change the ‘relative stability’, but this is just another word for keeping the status quo intact.”
In principal, ISWFPO, FishingForJustice.eu, and other groups have joined in the global chorus of applause for the imminent ban on dumping good fish.
The detail must yet be worked out and voted upon, with some states seeking a total ban rather than the 7% to 9% discards being proposed for some stocks.
“It is a shame to waste good fish when people are going hungry around the world,” said Mr Hassett. “That said, it is hard for us to support the discards ban when our quota is so ridiculously small. For us, that’s the real problem.
“Some of the detail also needs to be worked out, like how will they dispose of over-quota fish. If a man lands over-quota fish, will they be deducted from his actual quota? Does he end up in ‘negative quota’?”
The EU is expected to set aside funds to assist fishermen in buying new nets with larger meshes, which would allow smaller fish to get through. Scientists at the Marine Institute in Galway are among those trialling devices which allow smaller fish to escape from nets.
