Tight quotas ‘put fishermen’s lives at risk’

MORE fishermen will die at sea during the coming winter if the Department of the Marine does not take a more “realistic” approach to fish quotas, a national safety conference was told yesterday.

Fisherman John O’Mahony, a skipper of 25 years experience, claimed the department was putting fish quotas above the lives of fishermen because of its policies which forced trawlers to operate and land catches at designated ports.

Nine fishermen have been lost this year, including seven in the Pere Charles and two in the Honey Dew 11 tragedies.

Mr O’Mahony, who fishes out of Kinsale, Co Cork, told the National Irish Safety Organisation conference that each boat was allocated a monthly quota and if they did not reach that quota, it went “back into the pot” for the following month.

“This means that smaller boats will often go out in bad weather to ensure that they reach their quota, thus unnecessarily putting lives at risk,” he said.

Mr O’Mahony said he could not land monkfish at Kinsale and had to go 40 miles to the designated port of Union Hall, instead, so department inspectors could check the catch.

“That is fine in the summer but in winter if a storm comes, you make for the nearest port. However, if I land fish at Kinsale, that is not a designated port so I have committed a criminal offence. On conviction, I’m liable to a fine of tens of thousands of euro,” he said.

Mr O’Mahony said it was ridiculous to be trying to stop trawlers from landing catches between 8.30pm and 9am.

“If the department does not come up with a realistic solution to quota and designation problems, there will be more deaths of fishermen now that we’re heading into the winter and he herring season,” he warned.

“I believe that either every port should be designated, or designation should be scrapped completely.”

Mr O’Mahony said it did not make sense for herring fishermen from his home port to have to go to Dunmore East, or Dingle, both designated herring ports, to land their catches in uncertain winter weather.

The conference also heard there have been 53 workplace deaths so far this year, compared to 52 for all of 2006.

Construction continues to be the main problem area, with 14 deaths, followed by nine in fishing and nine in farming.

Safety organisation president George Brett said the 1,400-member organisation was helping employers and workers understand new health and safety regulations which were coming into effect from November 1 next.

“We feel people are overwhelmed by information and don’t know what to do with it. The legislation is complex, but we’re trying to make it easily understandable. We’re trying to help put practical structures in place to bring about greater safety in the workplace,” he said.