Sea fishing industry decimated by low 4% quota

How sad to hear the last sea fisherman (Conor O’Drisceoil) on Cape Clear is giving up.

A native of Cape Clear, a qualified electronic engineer, he invested €300,000 in a fishing vessel five years ago.

Some years ago there were 14 sea fishing boats on the Cape. Now there will be none.

All this because Ireland is allocated a mere 4% of whitefish quotas. The Marine Institute say foreign fishing vessels take in excess of €1billion worth of fish annually from Irish waters.

Our observers in Castletownbere tell us that in the past year they counted over 500 foreign fishing vessels landing their catch into articulated trucks for export to the continent.

At the same time our Minister for Agriculture and (part-time) Marine says he can do nothing about it.

We don’t believe this.

Perhaps if the people of Cape Clear are nice and compliant to EU rules they might get a grant for a filleting course on the Cape, teaching them how to fillet fish they are not allowed to catch.!

Donal O’Driscoll

East End

Castletownbere

Co Cork

Tom Hassett

Strawberry Hill

Cork