Ireland's fishing crisis: ‘Another nail in the coffin of Ireland’s indigenous fishing industry’ 

On day one of his special report, NEIL MICHAEL explains the industry's fears that a prospective EU-Norway deal could sideline Ireland's interests

Fisherman Manuel hauling in fishing lines aboard the Dingle-based gillnetter Men Scoedec. Picture: Neil Michael

That Norway wants more access to Ireland’s fish than it already has is something that has probably passed most people by.

So too the fact that this became a red-line issue for the Irish fishing industry.

At stake is the future of thousands of jobs in fishing villages and towns across the country. Also at stake is ultimately the chance of the average punter getting fresh Irish fish with their chips.

Why? 

Because if the Norwegians succeed in their bid, it will cement a perception in the industry that Ireland cannot protect its own waters at EU level and the current exodus from the industry will, according to industry chiefs, continue as a consequence.

In an interview with Marine Times in December, Brendan Byrne, the general secretary of the Irish Fish Processors and Exporters Association made a depressing observation.

He said the current generation fishing in Irish waters could be “the last generation to fish our seas”.

The industry is at a crossroads. At this point, there is a chance to either “stop the rot” and grow the industry, as the new Taoiseach Leo Varadkar vowed in a recent address, or for it to carry on a downward slide into oblivion.

This is one of the articles in Part 1 of the 'Irish Examiner' special report (in print, ePaper, and online) on Ireland's fishing crisis. Click that link to read the rest, as well as Part 2 on Monday, January 9.

 

The industry has been repeatedly saying it needs its government to fight its corner at EU level, as well as being far more supportive at home.

There is a perception that instead, Ireland is too keen to be a “good little European” and that successive governments have turned their backs on the industry — something Charlie McConalogue, the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, flatly denies.

The fear is that the EU will give Norway more access to Ireland’s stocks of blue whiting (pictured) so other EU members can get a deal for themselves on Norwegian cod. Illustration: Gervais & Boulart

That said, however much he is on the record for not allowing Norway greater access to Irish waters without something in return, he is powerless to stop the EU doing what suits the wider EU community.

It is, after all, the EU, and not Ireland, that non-EU member Norway has been negotiating with for greater access to our waters because the EU negotiates on behalf of all member states.

So whatever deal is struck with Norway is a deal struck on behalf of Ireland along with a lot of much larger, more powerful, and more dominant EU members such as Spain and France.

Also, you have to consider who the EU is negotiating with.

Norway is so desperate to secure fishing rights that rather than wait for a deal with the EU, it recently signed one with Russia that amounts to an exchange of quota — the official total allowable catch allocated to countries.

Over the years, the EU has always done deals which see EU member states able to catch cod off the northern coasts of Norway.

In exchange, the EU lets Norway fish in its waters for reciprocal amounts of blue whiting.

Recent negotiations have centred around the EU’s need for more cod. Norway wants something in return, like more blue whiting. This means greater access to Irish waters and its plentiful supplies.

The big fear is that the EU will give Norway greater access to more of Ireland’s stocks of blue whiting and Ireland will lose out so other member states can get a deal for themselves on Norwegian cod.

Some say Ireland should get EU negotiators to insist the Norwegians have to land their catch in Ireland and have it processed here.

The gillnetter trawler, Men Scoedec. Picture: Neil Michael

Others say Ireland should also be allowed to catch more fish either in its own waters or elsewhere in exchange, and that this should be in the form of a permanent increased allocation of quota.

Whatever happens, if Ireland loses out, industry chiefs say the knock-on effect will be devastating.

The Irish Fish Producers Organisation (IFPO) has repeatedly asked the EU fisheries commissioner in Brussels to reject Norway’s request.

Chief executive Aodh O’Donnell says people really need to pay attention to what is happening. “If the EU gives away [greater] access to the Norwegians without one single dividend for our fishing industry, it’ll be the greatest giveaway in recent times,” he said.

"It will be yet another nail in the coffin of Ireland’s indigenous fishing industry." 

The Castletownbere-based Irish South and West Fish Producers Organisation chief executive Patrick Murphy, who has also lobbied in Brussels, said: "It’s very simple. If the average punter likes to eat fresh Irish fish at home or in a restaurant or with their takeaway chips, they need to understand the need for a functioning Irish fish industry and fleet.

“For that industry to work, and for the fleet to keep going, it needs to be supported.

“I don’t doubt that talks about fishing quotas are very boring to the average punter but without proper quotas, there won’t be an industry.

“And as much as I find the prospect of an island nation like Ireland not being able to sustain its own national fishing fleet to fish for fish in its own waters very worrying, I do genuinely fear that it might become inevitable.

"Tourists from home and abroad love to visit fishing communities like Castletownbere but we are, in our own lifetime, witnessing the disappearance of these places."

Norway’s bid may have stalled in December — something not helped by the deal struck on blue whiting stocks with Russia — but it haven’t gone away.

Mr McConalogue made it clear to fishing industry representatives lobbying him that he would, in effect, have their back on the issue.

His refusal to back down to Norway’s demands at EU level for greater and “unfettered” access to Irish waters without having to give anything to Ireland in return seems to have paid off, for now.

But while negotiations at EU level have been suspended, the Irish position remains the same: If the EU gives Norway what it wants, it has to secure for Ireland permanent increased quota allocation.

Industry chiefs have been warning for years that the industry is in trouble and that the very survival of Ireland’s various fishing towns and villages, and the communities built up around them, are in peril.

If Norway gets its way, it will be another nail in the coffin of this beleaguered industry.

Quite a few nails have already been rammed into that coffin over the past few decades.

As the IFPO pointed out recently, countries such as the Netherlands, Belgium, France, and Spain have built successful fishing industries off the back of their access to Irish waters since 1983.

This was when the EU established a system of allocating shares of fish stocks between member states as part of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP).

Despite its establishment and objectives to oversee an equitable and proportionate division of fish resources among member states, the IFPO maintains that Ireland’s fishing industry has actually declined by over 50%.

Fishermen aboard the gillnetter Men Scoedec hauling in the fishing lines.  Picture: Neil Michael

A recent contribution to that decline was Ireland having its quotas — the measurement of what the EU tells Irish fishermen and women how much they are allowed to catch in their own waters — slashed by the Brexit Trade and Co-operation Agreement (TCA).

That led to the Government and EU agreeing on cuts to the amount of fish that Irish fishermen could catch.

However, while Ireland’s quota cut helped the TCA over the line for other, more powerful EU member states, the deal has since made it harder for Irish fishermen to earn a living.

As a direct result, 64 boats have applied to the Brexit-related voluntary decommissioning scheme — around one third of the country’s entire offshore fleet.

At stake from Norway’s bid for greater access is not just the idea that a non-EU country can sail in and take our fish, but also the way blue whiting fish stocks in Irish waters — which are worth between €160m and €200m — are fished.

Contrary to a perception among some conservationists, Irish fishermen and women say they have been at pains to conserve stocks and avoid overfishing.

This is because, apart from any other considerations, they simply wouldn’t be able to make a living if there weren’t enough fish to catch.

But as well as competing with larger fleets of predominantly bigger vessels registered to countries like Spain and France, they also compete in one of the most heavily regulated industries in Ireland.

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Added to that, as far as blue whiting is concerned, Irish fishermen are only able to take around 3% of what is there while Norwegians are already entitled to catch up to 18% of the total amount of blue whiting that EU fisheries chiefs say can be caught in a year in European waters.

If it isn’t supported at what is now seen as a crucial crossroads in its existence, by both the Government and by the public, it’s just going to die.

That message from the fishing industry is certainly food for thought.

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