Pair trawling: Sieving the life out of small bays and estuaries 

Pair trawling involves two boats dragging a single net through the water column to scoop up shoals of small fish, usually sprats, which are no more than a few centimetres in length. The practice illustrates everything that is wrong with how the seas around Ireland are managed says ecologist, Pádraic Fogarty

Pádraic Fogarty: "Pair trawling involves two boats dragging a single net through the water column to scoop up shoals of small fish, usually sprats, which are no more than a few centimetres in length." Picture: Irish Wildlife Trust

Why did the outgoing government fail to regulate fishing trawling in nearshore areas as they had promised? 

This sorry saga goes back more than a decade when anger erupted among anglers and small-scale fishermen using pots and lines over the arrival of large trawling boats sieving the life out of small bays and estuaries along the western seaboard.