Between 30 and 40 per cent of all of the fish Irish people eat comes from fish farms, yet our industry is still grossly underdeveloped compared with Norway or Scotland.
But with European consumers switching from meat to fish for health reasons and because of the many meat scares, there are huge opportunities for fish producers, whether fishing from the wild or fish farms.
When Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM) introduced its Irish Quality Certification Scheme in Brussels last week, its chairman, Mr Pat Ridge, said that France (our main export market for fish), Spain and Italy had seen increases of between 20 and 30 per cent in fish consumption since Christmas. Similar increases in demand have been seen in the Irish market.
There are around 450 fish farms in the State, Mr Pat Keogh, chief executive of BIM, estimates. There are a small number of big salmon and trout farmers and a lot of smaller shellfish producers. Total aquaculture production last year amounted to 46,000 tonnes, worth £69 million (€88 million). Salmon accounted for 18,000 tonnes, and was exported mainly whole and gutted. Apart from the main export markets of France, Spain and Italy, Germany and Britain are important export destinations for the Republic. Shellfish accounts for 26,000 tonnes of production, the main species being mussels grown on ropes or on the seabed, and Pacific oysters grown intensively in bags and trestles.
This is an industry that has grown over the past 25 years and Mr Keogh predicts that in five years it will rival sea-fish landings in value terms. "There will always be a fishing industry but aquaculture can more than complement the fishing industry. Today it is valued at half of fish landings but by 2006 the situation will be approaching 50-50. Fish farming will be worth around £130 million. That is quite a huge change in a short period. It's the way of the future," he says.
Since farmers can produce fish 52 weeks a year, compared with sea-fishing, which is a hunting activity and subject to problems of weather and harvesting, it is becoming a more reliable source of fish for demanding and sophisticated markets. Over half the fish eaten by European consumers now comes from fish farms.
And problems with disease, which dogged the salmon section of the industry for some years, are being controlled by more effective treatments and strictly enforced monitoring. But even in well-monitored situations, there is concern about the environmental impact of fish farming. "We would be extremely conscious to ensure that, for the future, they have the best possible codes of practice to ensure that the highest possible standards are complied with by salmon farmers," Mr Keogh says.
About 25,000 people are employed directly or indirectly in the seafood industry. About 2,500 are employed, full-time and part-time, in the aquaculture sector, a figure that should increase as the industry expands under the Government's £60 million public/private investment programme - part of the National Development Plan.
Looking to the future, Mr Keogh says several new species are being piloted, including Arctic char in Clashmore, Co Waterford, turbot in the West of Ireland and halibut. Clams are farmed fairly extensively in Sligo; abalone (for its meat and the shell for jewellery) is farmed in the west and south-west; scallops are farmed on the sea-bottom and on ropes in the west, at Valentia Island off Kerry and Bantry in Co Cork; and sea urchins are farmed in Co Cork. Lobster has been hatched and reared in Galway and in Carne, Co Wexford, and released into the wild at a certain stage in its development. And while cod is being cultivated in Norway and Scotland, Mr Keogh says its farming in captivity is being investigated here, but releasing it into the wild - "enhancement" for the wild fishery - may not be an economic proposition because cod can swim away.
