Two contrasting events of the past few days very much highlight the current state of the Irish fishing industry
— editorial comment, Cormac Burke, IFSA
The sun shone on Charlie McConalogue, his officials and various political locals as he officially opened a new 120m pier extension at Killybegs last Friday - - an event followed by lots of national media ‘spin’ regarding what a great benefit this will be to the fishing industry and how marvellous it is to see Government investment in the fishing industry and local fishing communities.
Aside from no reference or questions asked as to how an extension to a pier cost the Irish State close to the €50 million that the building of the entire original pier cost, not a single mention in any of these media press releases was given to anyone actually working in or representing the Irish fishing industry who could have informed them that at a time when the industry is in virtual collapse due to blatant mismanagement and dereliction of duty by this minister and by this Government, a new section of pier, much as was the case in Castletownbere, is an absolute waste of time.
Now fast forward to just three days later when nine skippers of vessels ranging in size from 15 to 65m in length, were hauled into Donegal Circuit Court this morning for a Hearing on charges (some dating back to 2020) of “under reporting” catches. This misnomer suggests wrongdoing on the part of the skipper. However the truth is that each captain did actually report their catch correctly and to the best of their ability.
As I sat at the back of the courtroom and listened to the ‘charges’ it occurred to me that, once again, the media will no doubt be fed a line about ‘overfishing’ and Irish fishermen being ‘in breach of regulations’ without asking any questions as to what are these cases related to or how they have come about.
Without blinding the reader with technical data, these cases have arisen due to the fact that the Sea Fisheries Protection ‘Authority’ (SFPA) some time ago suddenly decided to cease the decades-old system of monitoring the catches from a pelagic or polyvalent vessel as it goes through the indisputable weighing system within local fish factories and instead commenced a system of attempting to verify the volume of the catch ‘at point of landing’ - an exercise carried out in a very random and unreliable manner.
But, to add even more randomness to this procedure, the master of the vessel must ‘guesstimate’ in his logbook the actual volume of fish he has on board (which can be extremely difficult given the fact that this fish is pumped, along with sea water, in great volumes and at high speed, from the net into onboard RSW tanks, often in rolling seas) - - and if his ‘guesstimate’ is outside of the SFPA’s margin of tolerance (10%) then we see today’s scenario of skippers hauled into court and likely to be prosecuted when the cases come up in November and December this year.
They are now facing criminal convictions for an alleged offence that has not benefited them, their crew or the vessel owners.
Furthermore it has not caused a loss to anyone or impacted on the sustainability of the fishery resources. It is a victimless crime pursued by a vindictive authority!
As stated in a previous IFSA article, this can be compared to the SFPA showing a skipper a jar of sweets and asking him to guess how many is in it, and if you’re more than 10% out then its off to court for prosecution under the Criminal Justice Act (the same Act that deals with drug dealers).
Also worth noting that not only do these cases go back several years but some are repeat ‘offences’ and with penalty points doled out to each skipper for each offence, then by Christmas some of these skippers may have lost their licence.
It is such bloodymindedness from the SFPA that is almost ensuring that Irish fishermen break some law or other every time they land, but also the SFPA’s over zealous approach to pelagic vessels visiting Killybegs from other nations that has resulted in the masters of these vessels saying that they were abused and vowed never to return - - all of which has seen local fish processors denied vital raw material.
The two faces of management
So here we are - - an outgoing minister portraying himself [and this Government] to the public as having some sort of dedication to the coastal communities - - backed up by this Minister’s personal PR machine, BIM, who are in denial of their own data that shows an industry in crisis (latest BIM press release today 23/9/24 states that the industry “continues to grow and innovate”…) - - and at the same time the same Minister refuses to countenance anything that might actually help the industry, rejecting for example even the notion of an EU fishing fleet fuel subsidy for Ireland that most other EU Member States have been availing themselves of for the past two years.
This particular issue has been sidestepped and avoided on so many occasions by the minister that several opposition political parties have now included this as an urgent matter in their manifesto for the upcoming general election.
As for pier extensions and their ‘benefit’ to the Irish fishing industry:
The one in Castletownbere came at the same time as Irish whitefish fleet was reduced by one third due to a decommissioning scheme as many vessel owners were left with little choice as the quotas for Irish vessels (but not other EU vessels) in Irish waters has been reduced so much - - so that very expensive new landing facility benefits no one other than the huge fleet of Spanish vessels that use that port to land the fish they are allowed catch in Irish waters;
Meanwhile the pier extension at Killybegs has provided nothing other than more quayside space for the Irish pelagic fleet that are now tied up nearly ten months of the year as Ireland’s pelagic industry has suffered quota cuts and processing production losses amounting to near 40% in the past three years alone. Meanwhile less than 50 metres away is a syncrolift facility that should be benefitting the fishing fleet but is screaming for upgrade and investment and has been neglected by the Government for decades.
And it was without a shred or hint of embarrassment that Charlie McConalogue stood last Friday, giving his speech about what a great benefit to the local industry that the Killybegs pier extension will be, and in his background lay millions and millions of euros worth of investment in Irish pelagic fishing vessels tied up to the pier so long that weeds have begun growing on their shore ropes.
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