The State’s Sea-Fisheries Protection Authority
has ordered 15 southeast-based Irish fishing vessels back to port, pending an investigation of alleged infringement of whitefish quotas.
The 15 vessels, owned by the O’Flaherty brothers of Kilmore Quay, Co Wexford, have complied with the direction, but the owners are seeking an urgent meeting with the fisheries authority in Clonakilty, Co Cork, today in a bid to resolve the issue.
Denis O'Flaherty, spokesman for the fleet, said the order affected up to 100 people, between vessel crew and fish factory staff.
Discarded fish
"Some of our skippers have a problem in discarding fish which is over-quota, and ironically this time next year it is going to become an offence to do that for certain species under the EU's new discard ban," Mr O'Flaherty told The Irish Times.
“We are fishing for 14 species, and we have instructed our skippers not to fish over the quota, but where is the conservation in throwing back fish either?”
Earlier this year, EU fisheries ministers agreed to a phased ban between 2014 and 2017 of the controversial practice of discarding, whereby European fishermen are required to throw an estimated two million tonnes of unwanted fish back into the sea each year – often dead or dying – as they seek to fill strict quotas with the most valuable species.
In the interim, any fish caught over quota cannot be landed into port.
'Ridiculous' quotas
Mr O'Flaherty said the fleet of 10 beam trawlers, three whitefish boats and two scallop boats were trying to work with "ridiculously small quotas" – such as one tonne of megrim a month.
“France, which has the lion’s share of quota in our area, only caught 38 per cent of its megrim quota and 58 per cent of its monkfish quota last year, while we are struggling to stay within our much smaller share-out,” he said.
“The SFPA is just doing its job, in implementing policy, but a policy that forces us to work with such small quotas is wrong,” Mr O’Flaherty said. “This is our best month, but now we are tied up.”
Last year, the O’Flahertys tried to highlight the discard issue by landing all fish caught ashore in Kilmore Quay and giving it away, for which they received a caution.
The authority was unavailable for comment on the issue last night.
