‘If fishing is a sustainable job, I’ll stay at it’

GOOD FRIDAY is traditionally the busiest day of the year for fish sales. But while we are eating more seafood, our fishing fleet is shrinking because of diminishing stocks. Jim Morahan reports.

SKIPPER Trevor Devereux, 32, comes from a long line of Wexford fishermen.

These days, however, he ponders how long he can continue to answer the call of the sea.

Rising costs and diminishing returns make life a continuous strain for this young trawler owner.

“It’s just getting more and more difficult to make a living out of it,” says Trevor, who skippers the Willie B, a 24-metre vessel, out of Kilmore Quay.

Total Irish sales of seafood jumped by 9% to €724 million last year, State fisheries board Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM) reports.

Retail sales were up 15% at €157m, with sales to the food service sector rising 18% to €204m.

Significantly, fish farming — at 38% of total seafood sales — is accounting for an increasing share of total fish supplies.

Trevor explains the dilemma for the Irish fisherman: “Over the last year or two the pressure has come on big time with the rise in fuel costs. We’ll just have to keep going so long as we can, or find another job ashore. There’s a lot of people leaving the industry because it’s harder and harder to make a living at it. Only for the foreign crew we wouldn’t have crew to go to sea. I have three Portuguese men and myself.

The Irish people just don’t want to go to sea. It’s a hard life; you do the full seven days, then you’re in for a night and then you go again for another week.”

The prices he gets for his fish don’t compensate him, Trevor says.

“The vessel I’m fishing with burns 1,500 litres of fuel a day, at 40cent a litre. You’d have to catch an awful lot of fish to pay for that. Then you have insurance after that, boat repayments, maintenance costs, crew to pay.”

Last year, 35 older boats, or about 10% of the 15-metre fleet that fish for white species, were taken out of service.

Tight EU quota restrictions leading to reduced raw materials for fish processors are putting pressure on operating costs for the entire Irish seafood industry, says BIM.

To date up to 200 crew have been left without jobs, a trend expected to continue because more boats will have to be withdrawn to match the fleet with available fish stocks.

Under a scheme to pay owners to leave the industry it is planned to decommission 35% of 15-metre boats over ten years old.

Seafood sales in 2006 were up 9% to €725 million, according to BIM.

Fish farming is the new growth area, accounting for 38% of total seafood sales last year.

The father of two young children, Trevor is concerned he may be forced out of his chosen career.

“I may see myself having to do something else the way things are going.

“Personally, I don’t want to leave. If it’s a sustainable job, I’ll stay at it.”