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Give
It Some Welly for the RNLI MAYDAY Appeal and Help Irish Lifeboats
With the recent strange weather, the RNLI is calling on people to
put their wellies to good use and support their forthcoming MAYDAY
appeal. The charity that saves lives at sea is asking the public
to hold a welly themed fundraising event or buy a special yellow
welly RNLI MAYDAY key-ring to raise funds for the lifeboat service
in Ireland. The RNLI MAYDAY appeal is supported by John West.
Give
it some Welly! Ellie Stephenson (5yrs) from Firhouse with RNLI volunteer
lifeboat crewmembers Craig Kane, Damien Payne, Paul Cummins, Rob
Landers and Graig MacIntosh are pictured in Dun Laoghaire to help
launch the RNLI MAYDAY appeal. With the recent downpours and poor
weather the RNLI is calling on people to put their wellies to good
use and support their forthcoming MAYDAY appeal. Photo:Leon Farrell/Photocall
Ireland.
Full
report in this months issue
Commitment
from EU Member States to Secure Agreement on CFP Reform by End June
Meeting of Director General’s of Fisheries
Held
at National Seafood Centre, Clonakilty
The commitment by Director Generals for Fisheries of EU Member States
meeting at the National Seafood Centre, Clonakility on Tuesday 16th
April, to achieve agreement on CFP reform by the end of June has
been welcomed by Minister Simon Coveney. The meeting, hosted by
the Irish Presidency, assessed progress on the Reform proposal to
date and explored options for brokering resolutions by EU Ministers
and Parliament. While there is agreement between the Council and
the Parliament on the policy objectives for the Reform, there remain
significant outstanding issues on the detailed implementation arrangements.
Directors General from 23 EU Member States, together with a delegation
from the European Commission attended the meeting.
Full
report in this months issue
Seafood
Industry Fish for Business at International Trade Show
Twenty three Irish seafood exporters travelled to Brussels to exhibit
on Bord Bia’s stand at European Seafood Exposition (ESE), the
world’s largest seafood fair. ESE, regarded as the most important
trade event for the Irish seafood industry, attracts international
buyers from over 140 countries and features stands from in excess
of 1,600 exhibitors. The event provides an opportunity for Ireland’s
seafood exporters to identify new customers, meet existing clients
and launch new products.
Full
report in this months issue
What
a Wonderful Idea …..
Supply of a High Quality Lifejacket to Every Fisherman in Scotland
The Scottish Fishermen’s Federation (SFF) has welcomed European
Fisheries Fund support of £438,007 announced by the Scottish
Government for an SFF led project to supply a Personal Flotation
Device (PFD) to every fisherman in Scotland. Under the scheme, every
fisherman in Scotland with the correct mandatory certification will
have the opportunity to apply for the latest lifejacket - now known
as a Personal Flotation Device (PFD) - and get it for FREE!
Full
report in this months issue
Could
There Be A Quota for Blue Mouth? A number of Blue Mouth fish have
gone on display at Dingle Oceanworld recently. They were caught
on rod and line some 30 miles west of Dingle, according to Kevin
Flannery of the sea life centre. “Blue Mouth is a deep water
species which is usually caught as a by-catch by trawlers and discarded.
The Spanish and French boats keep them and sell them in their own
markets. I think it’s only a matter of time, perhaps a couple
of years, before we’ll see a quota being introduced for this
species. I think Irish fishermen should record them and all other
frequently discarded species in their logs for the day that such
quotas come in,” he told the Marine Times. Photo and report
by Ted Creedon.
Challenging
the Celebrity Chefs
I have referred before to the irresponsible and irrational, self-promoting
attitudes of so-called ‘celebrity chefs,’ newspapers and
environmental organisations which have abrogated to themselves decision-making
on the future of the fishing industry. They have created a public
perception that does not contemplate anything to do with the fishing
industry beyond the proclamation that “fish stocks are collapsing”
and have made that phrase an automatic media refrain, thereby denying
any possibility that the fishing industry would be able to gain
public understanding and acceptance of its own efforts at conservation
and protection of stocks. It is time to challenge those who have
used fishermen and the industry to advance their own interests and,
in the case of ‘celebrity chefs,’ self-promotion for their
books, their restaurants and their careers, built on the destruction
of the fishing industry’s reputation.
Read
The Mate's Opinion in this months issue.
Castletownbere
harbour. Photo by Helen Riddell.
Probably
one of the oldest ex crew members of the Irish fleet. These four
men fished together on Albert Swans MFV “Christine” in
1961. Pictured in Killybegs is John Sheridan 73, Francis Cunningham
75, Hammy Kyles 90, Sean Meehan 82. Photo by J. Cunningham.
A
Lifetime Fishing - Seamus Corr Recalls
Following on from his History of the Fifty
Footers, Pat Nolan now turns his attention to the men who have spent
a lifetime fishing ........
Last month the retired Skerries fisherman recalled the ups and downs
experienced over the many years he harvested east coast fishing
grounds. This month he continues to reflect on days gone by; During
the course of our chat Seamus described prawn fishing as the mainstay
during much of his fishing career. As such I enquired as to how
he remembered the prawn scene over the years. This is what he had
to say, “It was of course tails only up to around the mid-1970s.
There was no market for whole prawns until Derek Younger, the man
who built the Red Sail processing factory at Clogherhead started
buying them. We supplied prawns to him over many years when he worked
at Seabourne and Cullens. That was previous to his opening the plant
at Clogherhead. Currently there is huge money to be made out of
landing whole prawns. I’m afraid that was not the case in our
days, we got loads of prawns but prices were poor.”
Full
Story In This Months Edition
"This
Island Nation"
Noisy
Government Told to Explain Itself
There have been several unexplained instances of strandings of whales
and dolphins on the Irish coastline in the past few years, some
of which, it has been claimed, could be related to underwater noise
disturbance. Whales and dolphins depend on sound to communicate
with each other, to locate prey and to find their way across long
distances so they could be affected by acoustic disruption.
The Irish Whale and Dolphin Group complained to the European Commission
and to Energy Minister Pat Rabbitte that a seismic survey, licensed
for the Corrib Gas Field last year and which resumed work in March,
was not subjected to an environmental impact assessment as required
under EU Directives. The survey is due to last for several months.
Full
Story In This Months "This Island Nation"
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