Fishery protest - Dumping dead fish is immoral

Yesterday’s protest by trawlerman Seamus O’Flaherty in Kilmore Quay, where he gave away monkfish — around €28.50 per kg from retailers yesterday — caught outside of quota limits rather than dump it at sea again highlights utterly wasteful if not immoral obligations faced by fishermen in a world where around one billion people go hungry every day.

Resolving the issue, which seems an affront to the idea of cherishing nature’s gifts, is complex, challenging and as last summer’s negotiations showed, far more complex than might be immediately imagined.

Last June, in what fisheries minister Simon Coveney described as the “most significant outcome at an EU Fisheries Council in ... a decade” an agreement was reached to eventually end the dumping of dead fish at sea.