Minister urged to save 50 mussel fishery jobs

A GOVERNMENT minister has been urged to rescue 50 jobs in a coastal village.

The jobs could be saved if Agriculture Minister Brendan Smith agrees to reopen the mussel fishery in Cromane, it has been claimed.

A public meeting in the Kerry village was told the minister was under no obligation to close the fishery for environmental reasons as it was not having any impact on the Special Area of Conservation (SAC) in Castlemaine Harbour.

The minister was called on to withdraw his June decision to close the fishery.

The fishery generates over €5 million annually for the local economy.

Mussel fishermen warned they will be unable to replenish stocks.

IFA Aquaculture executive secretary Richie Flynn, who chaired Tuesday’s meeting, said progress by the departments of agriculture and environment had been embarrassingly slow.

“Meanwhile, the aquaculture sector is suffering directly while the Government fumbles along from one disastrous decision to another,” he said.

The inner part of Dingle Bay, around Cromane and Castlemaine, has been an SAC since the early 1990s.

Fishing for mussels had been carried out in the area for many years before the designation and had carried on after designation, with the commitment of the Department of Environment and the European Commission that existing activities could carry on unhindered, according to Mr Flynn.

The Department of Agriculture said the reason for not opening the harbour site this year was that additional factors were impacting on the opening of the mussel seed industry.

“These are environmental issues associated with the Natura 2000 sites, Special Areas of Conservation and Special Protected Areas. Certain spat falls overlap with, or occur in close proximity, to some of these designated sites,” a statement said.

The statement also said that, pending discussions, the opening of the affected sites will be delayed.