‘Reduction in fishing capacity is the only option’

AN ORGANISATION representing more than 100 trawler owners said the decommissioning project was necessary to resolve the imbalance between shortages of fishing quotas and excess fishing vessels.

Gerard O’Flynn, chief executive officer of the Irish South & West Fish Producers’ Organisation, said this imbalance had led to too many operations being economically unviable and several were faced with ruin.

“In the absence of any significant change in allocation of quotas, then reduction in fishing capacity is the only other option,” he said.