Fishermen demand aid as ministers vow clampdown

AS FISHERIES ministers vow to clamp down on illegal fishing and imports in the European Union, there are growing demands among commercial fishermen for emergency aid.

It has been estimated some 500,000 tonnes of illegal, unreported and unregulated fish products, worth approximately €1.1 billion, enter the EU market each year resulting in a loss of market share for EU fishermen.

This coupled with rocketing fuel costs and inadequate quota structures have brought about a crisis, Irish fishermen have said.

Fisheries Minister Brendan Smith and junior minister Tony Killeen yesterday attended the agriculture and fisheries council in Luxembourg to make the case for a pan-European response to the escalating price of fuel.

However, the emergency aid package pledged recently by the European Commission has not been backed up with funding.

EU Fisheries Commissioner Joe Borg is understood to be playing for time until next month’s ministerial session on July 15.

Meanwhile, Mr Killeen has announced grant aid totalling €41.1 million to decommission 46 vessels under the 2008 fishing vessel decommissioning scheme. Approved applicants have until July 18 to accept the offer and if they do so, they must have surrendered their fishing licences by September 12. Failure to meet these deadlines by an applicant will result in the next vessel on a reserve list being offered the opportunity to decommission, the department stated.

The scheme will see some 46 boats over 18 metres in length and with a combined capacity of 7,590 gross tonnes permanently exit the whitefish fleet over the coming weeks.

“The result of this decommissioning will be a significant boost to the economics of those boats remaining in the fleet. This economic lift comes from the redistribution of the whitefish and prawn catch previously taken by the vessels being decommissioned and is currently estimated at some €20m. This will over the next five years result in up to €100m in additional catching opportunities for those boats that remain,” said the minister.