Fish sector warns quota cuts will lead to job losses

FISH industry leaders yesterday warned that hundreds of jobs could be lost in coastal areas if proposed massive EU cuts in fish quotas are implemented.

EU Fisheries Commissioner, Joe Berg is seeking cuts of up to 35% in Celtic Sea herring, and 35% also in the cod catch.

But organisations representing fishermen insist the industry will suffer greatly.

Jason Whooley of the Irish South and West Fishermen’s Organisation said factories processing herring would be badly hit by the proposed herring cuts.

“They would have no alternative but to scale down. You could be talking about the loss of anything up to 300 or 400 jobs,” he said.

While herring fishermen, currently manning about 15 vessels in the south of the country, could diversify, many would be hit hard, Mr Whooley predicted.

He said scientific advice on cod quotas had not taken into account the voluntary closure of 4,500 sq miles of Celtic Sea cod areas undertaken by the industry over two years ago.

“I believe we should maintain the status quo with cod and on Celtic Sea herring. We have a recovery plan in place with the Irish scientists (Government advisors) which is designed to recover herring stock.”

Cod was not exclusively targeted, said Mr Whooley, and the proposed cut would mean that in 2007, fishermen who caught some cod, along with other species like monkfish, whiting and hake, would have to throw it back into the water. “That would be a nonsensical approach,” he stated.

With Ireland holding just 4% of the EU’s fishing catch quota, the country is a “small player” when it came to working out the year’s figures, Mr Whooley said. “If bigger states are over-fishing then that has an enormous effect.”

The head of the recently formed Federation of Irish Fishermen, Lorcan O’Cinneide said yesterday that fishermen “cannot live with” the cuts as they currently stand.

He said that fishermen’s livelihoods and the livelihoods of all connected with the industry are at stake.

However, Mr O’Cinneide added that “it’s not panic stations” just yet, and called on Marine Minister Noel Dempsey and the Irish negotiating team to make the fishermen’s case “very strong” at the EU quota talks later in the month.

Fine Gael marine spokes- person, John Perry accused the Government of doing little or nothing for fishermen and regarding the sector as a “sunset industry”.

Mr Perry said: “We in Fine Gael, however, would see it as a sunrise industry. We are committed to looking at all aspects, such as the conservation of stocks but also the development of aquaculture, which has huge potential for job creation.”

Deputy Perry said that millions of euro had been spent on fishing vessels around the Irish coast, but that the Government was ignoring the industry.

Sinn Féin spokesperson on fisheries, Deputy Martin Ferris said serious questions had to be asked about the quota cut proposals, particularly in light of the fact that foreign vessels are conducting “illegal fishing in Irish waters, under the guise of research”.