‘Northern-registered vessels no mussel seed fishing rights’

Northern Ireland-registered vessels have no legal entitlement to fish for mussel seed in the State’s territorial waters, the Supreme Court has ruled.

The six-judge court yesterday unanimously upheld arguments by four mussel fishermen mussel seed is a “natural resource” belonging to the State, the control and management of which must, under Article 10 of the Constitution, be provided for “by law”.

“The practice of harvesting or fishing for mussel seed by NI-registered boats in the territorial waters of this State is not lawful as it constitutes the exploitation of a natural resource which must, by Article 10 of the Constitution, be provided for by a law enacted by the Oireachtas,” Mr Justice Donal O’Donnell said in the court’s unanimous judgment,