FISHING SKIPPERS’ personal knowledge and experience of the marine environment has not been fully appreciated by scientists, according to researchers involved in a unique project led by NUI Galway.
Active and retired skippers on the west and southeast coasts are co-operating in the project which is led by Dr Brendan Flynn of NUI Galway’s (NUIG) newly formed Socio-Economic Marine Research Unit. The study aims to improve stock management by recording the wealth of knowledge held by fishermen working on the prawn grounds off the west Atlantic coast and on mixed fisheries in the Celtic Sea.
NUIG PhD student Edward Hind said the project was inspired by the Canadian experience, after the collapse of its cod stocks 10 to 15 years ago. “Canadian fishermen had been warning as far back as the 1970s that stocks were in trouble, but it was the scientists who weren’t listening,” said Mr Hind.
He said that as far back as the late 1800s, fishermen working around the coast of Ireland were worried that stocks were showing signs of depletion.
However, this was dismissed by the highly regarded scientific expert of the time, Thomas Henry Huxley, who said stocks were “inexhaustible” in 1883.
“So far we have found that Irish fishermen have potentially unique knowledge, not only of ecological conditions, but also of the social and economic environment in which they live. They also have many ideas that could shape marine policy and management,” Mr Hind said.
Up to 30 boats in the Galway and Aran fleet, and a number of boats working in the southeast, are participating, along with retired skippers. “We are very interested in fishermen’s strategies, and how they view their changing environment,”he added.
Fishing strategy seems to be linked to the degree to which a fisherman has invested in capital, he said. “Fishermen with high investments have no option but to fish for volume while others have adopted a strategy of fishing for value and have scaled down investment and reduced costs to do so.”