The establishment of a new independent Sea Fisheries Protection Authority to enforce EU Common Fisheries Policy and sea-fisheries law in general will come into force from January 1st, 2007, according to the Minister of State for the Marine, John Browne.
Speaking at the department's decentralised offices in Clonakilty, Co Cork earlier this month, the minister said the authority will be "wholly independent from the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources". The authority will be operated by a board of three commissioners and a 14-person consultative committee and held accountable to the Joint Oireachtas Committee.
The minister said 40 staff were already carrying out important functions in the new offices and confirmed that the entire marine department is on track for complete decentralisation to Clonakilty by summer 2007. ? Last year I travelled to Bardufoss in northern Norway (close to the Arctic Circle) along with a group of 10 angling colleagues. It was a long journey, all of 13 hours to be exact: from Dublin to Copenhagen to Oslo to Bardufoss.
Needless to say, our primary objective centred on catching big fish. The 10-day holiday was fantastic in every respect. The deep fjords produced some cracking fish including 13kg halibut, 12kg coalfish and plenty of cod, the best about 9kg. Much closer to home, recent reports confirm huge fish still inhabit Irish waters.
Ailbhe O'Sullivan and Michael Dennehy, from Fermoy and Blarney respectively, proved this point on a visit to Kinsale in west Cork. While fishing from a small boat over an offshore wreck, the two specimen hunters caught some fantastic cod, including three over the specimen weight of 9.1kg, all on 6-inch shad baits. O'Sullivan caught two specimens of 10.5kg and 12.55kg but Dennehy caught the biggest cod, a huge fish of 15.2kg.
According to the Irish Specimen Fish Committee, this is the biggest cod reported in more than four years. Indeed, 10 of the 14 specimen cod recorded last year were caught off Kinsale, and O'Sullivan accounted for the two heaviest, at 12.2kg and 11.8kg.
Rescuers from nine dramatic incidents received recognition at the Irish Water Safety national awards ceremony in Dublin Castle last Tuesday for saving 16 lives during 2006. The Seiko "Just In Time" award is presented to members of the public who save another person from drowning. One such incident occurred last July at Blessington Lake in Co Wicklow, where a family of four were fishing and their boat capsized. Two people watching from the shore plunged into the water in a desperate bid to rescue them, but also got into trouble. Patrick O'Brien and Eamonn Murray from Wicklow immediately went to the scene where they rescued all six successfully.
Lough Swilly RNLI all-weather lifeboat William Luckin assisted a fishing vessel with six crew members on board which went adrift seven miles north of Malin Head recently. The adverse weather conditions saw waves reaching 10m high.
The Portrush lifeboat Katie Hannon went to the scene after the tow rope between the two vessels broke twice. After more than 10 hours at sea the two lifeboats and the casualty vessel arrived safely in Greencastle Harbour. Second coxswain Mark Barnett said: "Conditions were horrendous. We had to make several passes to establish a tow as the fishing vessel was rolling violently."
Pike fishing at the Oaks Fishery in Derry is starting to warm up with fish up to 9kg being caught. On the trout front, local angler Mark McGortery caught three good fish, including a tagged trout worth ¤30 on a Cat's Whisker fly and Paul Duddy landed a 2.7kg rainbow on the fly. The horrendous weather the weekend before last curtailed the fourth heat of the Scierra fly fishing winter league at Annamoe Trout Fisheries on Co Wicklow, with anglers changing peg positions on the half-hour to combat the gale force wind. With water temperature dropping to 6 degrees, the rainbows were lying low and were difficult to entice to the many fly patterns presented. After four hours, 16 anglers landed only eight trout, the lowest amount in any of the leagues over the past five years. Overall winner on the day with two fish was local angler Sean McLoughlin from Rathdrum. The last qualifying heat is scheduled for Saturday, November 9th (call 0404-45470 for further details).
angling@irish-times.ie