Ireland’s leading maritime newspaper covering the Coastal, Fishing and Maritime Communities
MARINE TIMES NEWS October 9th:
“Call for 70% cut to mackerel quota a grenade in the water for Irish fisheries.”
Calls from the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) for the total catch of the Atlantic mackerel stocks to be reduced by 70% have been described as “a guarantee of utter annihilation for Irish fisheries” by the leader of Independent Ireland Michael Collins.
The Cork South-West TD also offered a scathing assessment of the rationale underlying the call, adding that it if it were implemented it would “merely compound the overwhelming aggression inflicted on Ireland’s fishing industry by Norwegian, Icelandic, Finnish, Faroese, Spanish and UK trawlers who have consistently engaged in what are effectively outrageous raids on our fishing stocks.”
He added, “I am hearing from some quarters and from conservationist campaigners that having mackerel on our menus is no longer an ethical option. I will tell you what is unethical. The actions of successive governments in abandoning their fishing communities is unethical. The fact that we have yet to regain access to Rockall fishing grounds despite generations of traditional access is unethical. The wanton destruction and depletion of our fishing stocks and the political decision to throw pelagic and inshore fishers overboard from the Budget boat is unethical.”
“Ireland cannot and should not be forced to pay for the sins of others when it comes to depleted mackerel stocks especially when as I understand it, our mackerel hook-and-line quota has been exceeded only once in the past ten years.”
“This proves that our fisheries sector has always sought to act in a responsible and fair manner. We are not the cause of this problem, but we are now expected to pick up the tab for the routine violations visited upon us by others.”
“A 70% reduction in the total catch of Atlantic mackerel, if adopted, would have a grossly disproportionate impact on our fisheries. There can be no negotiation on that point, only the outright rejection of a proposition that is reckless in the extreme.”
“Our fishing men and women are made of stern stuff, but the question now is whether our government will sit back and permit yet another humiliation and devastating recommendation to be imposed upon us by organisations like the ICES and indeed, EU institutions, who have not alone demonstrated that they are out of touch, but more alarmingly that they are active threats to our future.”
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