The Irish mackerel industry was looking forward to a massive increase in the amount of fish it can catch but fear it could all be whittled away by the demands of Iceland and the Faroe Islands.

The EU is to launch a trade war against Iceland and the Faroe Islands to stop them helping themselves to half the entire EU mackerel stocks, at Ireland’s insistence.

A deal to reverse an allegedly catastrophic drive towards emptying the seas of fish has been agreed.

Some years ago, as ever more industrialised commercial fishing decimated fish population after fish population, conservationists suggested that the last generation of humans who would eat wild fish taken from our seas had been born.

A deal on fish policy for the next decade was pulled back from the brink when EU member states agreed to a new set of compromises put forward by Fisheries Minister Simon Coveney.

Call for citizens based abroad to vote

Ireland’s general welcome for EU moves to ban fish discards is only partially shared in the south of the country.

It is almost inevitable that multibillion euro deals between governments and international investors trying to exploit a country’s natural resources give rise to a scepticism or suspicion.

Fisheries ministers were working their way towards a radical change in the EU’s fisheries policy last night with a ban on discards in sight.

A major step in the most radical reform of the EU’s fisheries policy was agreed by the European Parliament.

A lack of scientific evidence about fish stocks saw a cut in the quantity of valuable species such as haddock and monkfish for Irish fishermen in the annual EU share-out of fish.

A new fishing lobby body has made a direct plea to EU Fisheries Commissioner Maria Damanaki for a greater share of the EU white fish quota for Ireland.

Fisheries ministers struggled yesterday for a clear route to ensure Europe’s fish stocks recover and provide a decent livelihood for their fishermen.

EU countries will be allowed to privatise their fish quota under what Fisheries Minister Simon Coveney describes as a “huge success” for the country.

We don’t have to step too far back from the turmoil threatening parts of the European Union to see that EU membership has been a hugely positive experience for Ireland.

Ireland can play a key role in the renegotiation of the Common Fisheries Policy, which some nations want to alter to reverse the effects of decades of overfishing, writes Europe Correspondent Ann Cahill

The EU is to fast-track trade sanctions against Iceland and the Faroe Islands as the mackerel war threatens to halve Ireland’s quota of its most valuable stock next year.

THE amount of fish thrown overboard as “discards” can be dramatically reduced by a scheme in which fishermen must count all the fish they catch towards their quotas, a report suggested yesterday.

FISHERMEN have criticised as “perverse” plans to reduce the amount of some fish they can catch next year, under European Commission proposals that would shut the cod fisheries in the Irish Sea.

A REVOLUTION in the way Europe manages its fishing industry has been unveiled in Brussels, with the warning that the choice is between a near wipe-out of fish stocks or an increase of 70% with a tripling of profits over the next decade.

PEST controls introduced on Irish salmon farms since 2008 have been effective in keeping maintained lice levels below treatment trigger levels, a report has stated.

IRISH fishermen have come away reasonably happy with the quota of fish they can take from the seas next year following negotiations in Brussels.

THE Government was last night resisting compromises that would see fishermen getting a quota for some species next year, but in exchange they would have to give them up in 2012.

IRELAND and Scotland have insisted that the EU stops using their fish quotas in swap deals with Norway, and instead introduce a communal EU fish pool for future trading.

Prison authorities in China have started giving Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo better food, the dissident's wife said today, while she herself faces restrictions on whom she can meet and must be accompanied by a police escort whenever she leaves her home.

CHINA has blocked European diplomats from meeting the wife of the jailed Nobel Peace Prize winner and cut off her phone, in anger over the award.

China today blocked European diplomats from meeting the wife of the jailed Nobel Peace Prize winner and cut off her phone in anger over the award.

QUOTAS for the country’s most valuable fish, mackerel, could be facing cuts next year instead of being increased because of the actions of Iceland and the Faroe islands.

A DECISION by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food to reopen Castlemaine Harbour in Co Kerry for sourcing mussel seed has been welcomed in the area.

Church bells rang out in a quiet Wexford village today to mark the 70th anniversary of a deadly German bomb attack.

ANGLERS and conservationists are mounting strong opposition to moves to change a law that has imposed a complete ban on commercial fishing for sea bass over the past 20 years.

FISHING communities have, and are, facing huge changes, many of them unwelcome.

A GIANT shark that could be up to 6m long has sent shockwaves across Australian beaches after a great white shark was nearly bitten in half.

TALKS between the European Union, Norway and the Faroe Islands on the management of the almost three million ton mackerel stock in the North East Atlantic will begin in Clonakilty, Co Cork, today.

FISHERMEN can lose their licences permanently and countries will lose their fish quota if they persistently break the rules.

A PROPOSAL by An Bord Snip to dissolve BIM has been criticised by shellfish and fin fish farmers around the coast.

ALMOST a third of sharks and rays found in the open ocean are threatened with extinction – largely as a result of overfishing, conservationists warned yesterday.

IRISH fishermen got an early Christmas gift in the form of an extra 4% of fish they can catch next year following EU negotiations, but fishermen off Donegal will need new nets under revised rules.

A HISTORIC concession to Irish fishermen, which last year almost doubled the amount of cod they could fish in certain areas, could disappear warned Fisheries Minister Tony Killeen.

THE Government will tell the EU it wants more money for the Irish fishing industry when EU Fisheries Ministers meet today.

THE Federation of Irish Fishermen (FIF) has called on Ministers Brendan Smith and Tony Killeen to deliver on their undertaking to obtain emergency measures to alleviate the current crisis in the industry.

Fishermen say they are angry and disappointed with the Government following today's meeting at which they discussed the Agriculture and Fisheries Minister's new proposals to alleviate problems in the industry.

Protesting fishermen have removed their blockades of ports in Cork and Waterford this morning.

Fishermen are continuing a series of protests around the country today to highlight issues they say are destroying the fishing industry.