Freezer trawlers are catching some of the best managed stocks in EU
The campaign against our fishing vessels, calling for Minister Simon Coveney to ‘ban these super-trawlers from Irish waters’, is ill-informed and overly sensational.
The fact is that our vessels are part of the larger EU pelagic fleet that consists of trawlers flagged in Ireland, UK, Denmark, Sweden, France, the Netherlands, Lithuania and Germany.
The fact is that all these vessels use the same type and the same size of pelagic nets. The pelagic quota (meaning what we are allowed to catch) are in general substantial, which is one reason why pelagic fisheries are large scale fishing operations.
The fact is that the pelagic stocks targeted by these vessels, such as mackerel, horse mackerel, blue whiting and herring, are considered to belong to the healthiest, best managed stocks in Europe.
The fact is that many of these pelagic fisheries – including the Irish ones and the fisheries operated by the vessels belonging to my association — have already been certified or are being certified under the leading Marine Stewardship Council sustainability label.
The fact is that these vessels do not operate uncontrolled or unregulated, but only catch what is
allocated to them by their respective EU Member States in the context of the EU Common Fisheries Policy (CFP).
The fact is that access to Irish waters for a number of non-Irish vessels is part of the CFP, just as the CFP allows a number of Irish vessels to have access to waters of other member states.
Finally, the fact is that claiming that the large size of a vessel or a fishing net is an impediment for a
sustainable fishing operation — as is done in this campaign — is deliberate misinformation.
Whatever political objectives the campaigners aim to achieve may lie beyond my vision or
comprehension. I can only ask them to base their line of argumentation on verifiable facts instead of using the tactic of framing and misinformation.
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