Spanish and Portuguese seek Irish Box rights

EU marine ministers will discuss opening up the Irish Box to Spanish and Portuguese fishermen at their meeting in Brussels today.

The abolition of the box 50 miles of waters around the Irish coast from which all but 40 Spanish vessels have been excluded is now accepted as inevitable by all concerned.

A compromise has been drawn that would result in a smaller box off the west coast where mainly hake is fished, and where access to all EU fleets, including the Irish, would be restricted.

Marine minister Dermot Ahern has welcomed this compromise but the Irish fishermen's organisations are far from happy. They are concerned that the Spanish fleet the largest in the EU will empty the seas of fish in a short time.

Connacht MEP Sean O Neachtain said enforcing the quantity of particular fish that can be taken from the seas will not resolve the problems.

"We know the problem is created by the huge amount of discards the Spanish catch small, immature fish that are caught with the rest and thrown back into the sea dead.

"We could find these waters completely fished out in no time at all," he said. He drew up the report on the issue for the European Parliament but withdrew his name from it when his compromise solution was defeated by the parliament's Fisheries Committee last week.

The Spanish were excluded from the Irish Box since they joined the EU in 1985 but under the terms of their accession treaty this ceased in January this year.

The European Commission's legal advice was the Spanish fleet was being discriminated against by being kept out. No final decision is expected to be taken on the compromise today. During the meeting the various governments have a chance to give their views on the latest compromise.

Mr Ahern said he did not like the compromise but at least it was an acknowledgement that the seas around the Irish coast were a sensitive area that needed some protection.

"We have stood firm on that matter and provided our own scientific data arguing that, on purely conservation grounds, restrictions around our coast must be kept in place.

"The Commission has now proposed a redrawn box which, while far from acceptable to me, at least represents a softening of its hardline stance," he said.

Most of the fish the Irish fleet take from the sea come from the Irish Box.