Over-fishing set to spark €80m quota cutback

IRELAND’S fishing industry risks having its mackerel quota slashed by €80 million, the EU has confirmed.

This is because some of Ireland's biggest vessels overshot the country's quota by 25% a year over the past four years.

Under EU rules, a country's quota is reduced by the amount of fish taken illegally the previous year.

As a result fishermen will have their quota cut back by 6,000 tons this year, Marine Minister Noel Dempsey said. He hopes the overshoot of 35,000 tons taken between 2001 to 2004 will not all be taken out of next year's quota as it would destroy the mackerel fishing industry.

"It would mean we would have no catch for a year and we are trying to minimise the impact to our industry," he said.

He hopes the European Commission will agree to have the reductions spread over a few years. But the cuts will be suffered by all 30 vessels involved in mackerel fishing and not just the five or so fishing illegally.

The over-fishing came to light recently in two fish factories in Peterhead and Shetland in Scotland, where a small number of Irish vessels were illegally landing mackerel. There was a sophisticated system in operation the legal catch was emptied through the normal pipe while a second, hidden one, was used to offload the illegal catch. However, this operation involved fewer than 10 of Ireland's largest fishing vessels.

However, this is just one of several problems the minister had to discuss with the EU Fisheries Commissioner Joe Borg yesterday. Ireland is threatened with four court actions that could result in multi-million euro fines.

Mr Dempsey said the Government has got its house in order now in relation to making returns on fish landings, fleets and other issues.

"We hope the commission will take this into account now and the fact that we are doubling our fish inspection officers to 100 and are bringing in the new Sea Fish and Maritime Bill that will ensure the regulations are effective", he said.

For years the European Commission and marine scientists have been saying that fishermen are involved in a huge amount of illegal fishing. Now this is coming to light with the uncovering of various scams, including an illegal landing in Rossaveal, Co Galway, last month when €500,000 of fish was landed at night and inspectors were intimidated.

"This is highly organised by big operators how else could you have a fleet of 15 trucks with a convoy of drivers organised to offload illegal catches," Mr Dempsey said.

He added that he believes the fishermen's organisations are coming to grips with the new reality.

"They accept now that there are a number of people involved in criminal activity and they have told me they want this element removed from the industry."