This is no fishy tale

Few livelihoods take more from nature and put less back into it than the maritime fishing industry. That’s as true for Ireland as it is for virtually every country on the planet with a fishing fleet.

To make a worrying situation worse, Ireland has come last in the latest EU report on what member countries are doing to match their fishing fleet to the amount of fish that can be safely taken out of the sea.

With fish stocks dwindling around the world and many species that communities depend on for a livelihood in danger of extinction, it is vital that member states should heed warnings from scientists on the risks posed by overcapacity in a country’s fleet.

Having come well out of recent fishery policy negotiations, Marine Minister Simon Coveney will be back at the EU table next Monday when the thorny issue of total allowable catches and fleet capacity will be fixed for 2013.

Future generations will not thank him unless the compelling arguments of scientists for reducing overcapacity, beefing up control and enforcement, and funding data collection and research are vigorously backed by Ireland.