The price of fuel is only one ingredient in the simmering cauldron that prompted the recent fishermen's protests, writes Lorna Siggins, Marine Correspondent
PENNIES DON'T DROP so much anymore, but somewhere in some Government department this week a cent or euro fell to the floor. At this point, up to 70 fishing vessels were gathered at the mouth of Cork harbour, with similar disruption to shipping movements promised in the Waterford estuary.
Some 16 vessels had already berthed peacefully in Galway, and a fleet of Donegal vessels was ready to steam northabout to Dublin. With some 90 per cent of the island's trade dependent on sea transport, it was only a matter of days before Ireland Inc could have found itself closed for business.
A suspension of the action - which is unauthorised but highly organised - is only that, according to joint spokesman Ebbie Sheehan of west Cork. "A pause, while we wait and see," he warned.
The former fleet owner had been planning to start a hunger strike with several colleagues yesterday to highlight the issues. Following a commitment by Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries Brendan Smith to meet the industry, along with his junior counterpart Tony Killeen, Sheehan travelled instead to Athlone, Co Westmeath, to monitor the talks outcome. Fellow spokesman, Johnny Walsh of the Kinsale-based Rachel Jay knows that Sheehan's hunger-strike suggestion is not an idle threat. "We were, we are, in a situation where there are so many skippers and crew we have nothing to lose," Walsh said. "For many, it's a question of which the bank takes first now - the house or the boat."
Top of the agenda for yesterday's meeting was a demand for State aid for a temporary tie-up, to tide owners and crew over while fuel prices escalate. The industry is also seeking action over cheap fish imports which are depressing prices for Irish-caught fish.
A list of other issues raised by the protesters, and formulated by the Federation of Irish Fishermen (FIF) - an umbrella organisation representing some 90 per cent of the fleet over 12m in length - has been submitted to the Minister. Its content reflects a level of frustration and deep despair within communities living on a coastline of over 7,500km.
A combination of shrinking quotas, escalating fuel prices and increased bureaucracy and monitoring has already forced many out of the industry. A €42 million decommissioning scheme to reduce the whitefish fleet by up to a third is currently being handled on behalf of the State by Bord Iascaigh Mhara.
The list of demands submitted to the new Minister in Athlone reflects this harsh reality, with only one brief reference to quotas. The emphasis is on a form of euthanasia - a dignified exit with sufficient funding for those vessel owners and crew not covered by the current decommissioning or scrapping scheme.
For although they may have had more reason to distrust the EU than farmers, the Lisbon Treaty debate has not been one that the FIF or its members had intended to engage in. The sorry history of a trade-off for agricultural concessions during negotiations on Ireland's accession to the EEC in 1972-3 has already been well told. The deal, which ensured that some of the richest fishing grounds in Europe were reserved as an "exclusive EU competency", was recalled as recently as this week by one Minister of State during referendum canvassing on the west coast.
Speaking to this reporter, he referred to it as a "mistake". For several decades, successive marine Ministers have also acknowledged this. What's more, successive administrations turned a blind eye to quota breaches when it suited, knowing that many coastal voters could not survive within the limits set by the EU.
Irish skippers were actively encouraged to develop, gear up and build larger boats to target new fish species which were not subject to quota. One such skipper was Clíona Conneely, daughter of Aran island fisherman Gregory Conneely. She took serious financial risks - and found herself in tears as she tried to outline her plight to Taoiseach Brian Cowen during his Lisbon canvass in Galway last week.
With world demand for fish on the increase, such vessels helped to sustain often isolated coastal areas. There has always been competition, however, from EU coastal states where fish consumption is far higher.
A so-called "Irish Box" was devised during the first 10 years of Spanish and Portuguese accession to the EU to protect some of the most biologically sensitive areas of the south-west from the full intensity of a hungry Iberian fleet.
However, when the "box" controls were lifted in 1996, information on quotas allocated to non-Irish vessels became far more restricted. As a result, the Naval Service was reduced to operating with one hand tied behind its back. This list is now dominated by Irish vessels, being the only vessels that the Naval Service has full information on. Compliance is relatively high compared to the number of boardings.
None of this cut much ice with Noel Dempsey, appointed as communications, marine and natural resources Minister in 2004, when a complaint was sent to the European Commission by an aggrieved Donegal fisherman. The complaint alleged "collusion" between government officials and the fleet on illegal landings, and became the subject of a Garda investigation.
Raids on vessels and houses were quickly followed by the introduction of a controversial new piece of legislation, the Sea Fisheries and Maritime Jurisdiction Act. The EU Fisheries Commissioner Joe Borg had made it clear that he wanted strict controls, given pressure on stocks due to over-fishing - but he also suggested a system of administrative sanctions for minor offences would be preferable, as the EU norm.
This was ignored, the Act was passed in spite of a nationwide fishermen's protest, and was followed by the establishment of a new monitoring agency, the Sea Fisheries Protection Authority (SFPA). With more than 100 officers, it has proportionately more resources at its disposal than agencies charged with drug interdiction duties. Johnny Walsh of the Rachel Jay believes that while the price of fuel may have tipped fishermen over - sparking off protests across Europe - it is only one ingredient in a simmering cauldron. Walsh was the last person to speak on VHF radio to Ger Bohan, his close friend and skipper of the Honeydew II which sank off the south-east coast in the same week as the Dunmore East vessel, Père Charles, in January 2007.
Seven fishermen lost their lives while trying to take advantage of a window in the weather, and none of the seven bodies have been recovered. In the same week as the south-east sinkings, an Irish vessel working on the Porcupine Bank was refused permission to take shelter in the west because he hadn't given the requisite notice of his intention to land.
Many skippers believe that there has been a deliberate policy on the part of the State to "criminalise" an entire industry in crisis. They are aware of a far more sympathetic approach taken by other EU member states. Last November, French president Nicolas Sarkozy announced a €310 million aid package for fishermen after several ports were blockaded, in spite of EU strictures that preclude such direct aid. What has heartened people like Walsh and Sheehan has been the expression of public sympathy over the past fortnight, even though fuel prices are affecting many industries - with road hauliers now threatening action. The sympathy factor has been boosted no doubt by some of the more imaginative aspects of the fishermen's action.
SOUTH-EAST FISHERMEN took the initiative recently when they distributed free filleted fish on Dublin's O'Connell bridge - borrowing an idea from their own national federation, which had discussed it as part of a national "fish awareness day".
Chaz Bates and colleagues from Kilmore Quay, Co Wexford, then cast a token box of remains into the river Liffey to highlight one of the more ludicrous aspects of the EU's Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), whereby by-catches or species caught accidentally have to be dumped back into the sea.
The EU civil servant who came up with the discard ruling as part of an increasingly dysfunctional CFP had good intentions, no doubt. Discarding of non-target species under a strict quota system is "economically neutral".
However, dumped fish don't survive, and juvenile fish are lost. The waste of resources and negative impact on marine biodiversity runs contrary to other EU policies and international agreements on conservation and sustainability. For skippers who depend on careful management of a renewable resource, the practice cuts to the very core.