Mackerel boats ‘full to the chin’ no more as quota down by over 70%

Mackerel is the most widely-caught fish by sea anglers here, a survey by Inland Fisheries Ireland found.

As someone drawn almost magnetically to the fish section in Cork’s English Market, especially by its mackerel delights, news from the other side of the Irish Sea is concerning.

British supermarket chain, Waitrose, is to suspend sales of mackerel products due to concerns about overfishing. The retailer is to stop sourcing fresh, chilled and frozen mackerel by April 29, as well as tinned mackerel once its current stocks have been sold.

With the most recent, highly restrictive fishing quota announcements for Ireland, will it be long before we have reduced availability of once-common mackerel in our shops?

Foreign fishers are usually blamed for gross over-exploitation of our stocks. As with many other species, mackerel around our coast are also diminishing because of overfishing.

We’re facing a mackerel quota reduction of more 70% this year, following recommendations by the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) because stocks are now below safe biological limits.

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This obviously has serious consequences for fishing ports such as Castletownbere, County Cork; Dingle, County Kerry; Dunmore East, County Waterford; Killybegs, County Donegal, and Rossaveal, County Galway.

Any drop in stocks also has an impact on recreational anglers. Mackerel is the most widely-caught fish by sea anglers here, a survey by Inland Fisheries Ireland found.

There’s a tradition of mackerel fishing in West Cork ports like Kinsale and Baltimore, as there is of casting lines from rocks around the coast. I can remember seeing abundant mackerel being hauled in by line in Valentia Island, County Kerry. Nothing really tasted like a just-hooked, oil-rich mackerel eaten straight from the pan, a most nutritious fish and full of omega-3.

Silvery shoals

Stories from the Blasket Islands tell of the abundance of this and many other species, as recorded in the celebrated memoir of local writer, Tomás Ó Criomhthain, for example.

Boats almost sunk under the weight of mackerel hauls. He recounted rushing out to sea after seeing silvery shoals of fish just beneath the waves: such was the size of the catch that extra boats had to be called for at times.

Ó Criomhthain recalled how the oarsmen strained and boats were ‘full to the chin’ of May mackerel, everyone one of them as long as your arm.

In his book, An t-Oileánach (The Islandman), he wrote: “The next thing was to cure the fish; a hard job it was washing it and salting it, for there was no market for fresh fish at that time.

“There were eight thousand fish in the great heap, for it was a large-sized fish. We were pretty well worn out after the day’s fishing, and we had a good night’s sleep, never fear.’’