Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
IRISH FISHERMEN WILL face cuts in the amount of cod, pollack and megrims they can catch next year, but will have increased quotas for almost every other fish.
The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Michael Creed today announced the 2017 quotas for fishermen.
This follows intensive negotiations at the annual EU Fisheries Council in Brussels which went on until the early hours of this morning.
Fishermen face a 15% reduction in the amount of cod they are allowed catch next year.
There is also a 25% reduction in the amount megrims allowed to caught in Irish waters (megrims is a type of flat fish popular in Spain). There will also be a 10% reduction in the amount pollack allowed to caught.
However, overall the total quota in weight of fish (including shellfish) will rise by 6% on this year – from 216,222 to 233,610.
This is due to rises in the quotas of haddock, whiting and Norway lobster.
Fishermen will be able to catch 25% more haddock in the Irish Sea, as well as 21% more whiting in the Celtic Sea.
There is also a 9% rise in the amount of prawns that can be caught in the south and west coasts.
The total worth of fish caught next year is expect to hit €280 million (up 6% on last year)
Commenting on the revised quotas, Minister Creed said that he had turned an “extremely worrying set of proposals” in “a much improved outcome for the Irish fishing industry”.
“This is a balanced package for the Irish fishing industry,” said Creed.
I am especially pleased that the quotas agreed respects the scientific advice ensuring that the fish stocks in our waters will be managed sustainably.
Creed said the 6% overall increase in quotas from 2016 was “a good result overall” and was a long way away from the original commission proposals.
“The original proposal included a 19% reduction in whitefish quotas,” said Creed.
“In 2017 we will now have a significant increase for our vitally important whitefish fisheries and stability for many of our valuable stocks around our coast.
This will ensure the continued vibrancy of our industry and the long term sustainability of our stocks.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Isn’t that great. Thanks to benevolent EU for allowing Irish fishermen to catch more fish in Irish waters.
We should be catching 2.8 billion rather than 280 million worth of fish in OUR water each year. Unfortunately FF/FG gave away our fishing rights to take care of their farming pals!
Sorry.Didn’t see your comment when i posted.
@Beachmaster:Sorry! Didn’t see your comment when i posted.
What a non story this is, when are the freezer ships getting banned..? When are the fishing communities going to get even recognised ?
Developing the indigenous fishing industry was never a priority for the Irish capitalist class which came to power after Independence. Instead this weak and underdeveloped rentier class and their political wings in FF and FG have a long track record of facilitating international capital to exploit Irish resources (including our fisheries) while personally enriching themselves as the middleman:
“McCabe’s book demonstrates that an elite class came to power in Ireland in 1922 which had little interest in fostering a type of economic development which would benefit the mass of society. Essentially, this class, drawn from the landed bourgeoisie and their professional descendants, favoured the economic interests of the ‘rancher class’ and ultimately their descendants in the law, construction, politics and high finance. Few would disagree that the two main parties have continued this process to the present day………………..
Worse still, governments were prepared to sacrifice huge amounts of state resources for modest paybacks in employment and tax revenue. Fianna Fáil essentially gave away £16 million of copper mines in Avoca to a Canadian company in 1955 and the biggest lead/zinc mines in Europe at Tynagh to the Canadian Northgate group, which shortly afterwards made over $36m on it in one year.
Less than 50 jobs resulted from the decision by Sean Lemass to sell total gas and oil exploration rights to the American Ambassador Company in 1959 for £500. This was subsequently bought by Marathon which discovered the Kinsale gas field. Links to the present day are obvious. Ireland got virtually nothing from the Kinsale gas find and lost billions in revenue from the Erris gas field in Co Mayo.”
@Benjy Rooney: Its nice to know we will be allowed to catch our own fish
@Benjy Rooney: Have yourself and the AAA posters on here never heard of the term TL;DR?
What about super trawlers?
So when are the EU’s supertrawlers leaving our waters and fish alone?
200 billion, between 1973 – 2012 given away, the crooks of the EU knew exactly what they were doing!
@Colette Kearns: where could I read a valid research article that confirms the 200 billion figure?
Why would you want valid research when you can get all the gossip and hearsay you need here in the comments section of the Journal?
Someone is bound to suggest the documentary “Atlantic ” but that’s very biased.
Stop it, Stopit. The figure is irrelevant as it’s only an estimate, probably an underestimate. The point is the fisheries policy is warped, sharing out the quota by country and population size sounds so nice and equitable. But it’s our waters they are sharing, it’s not like we can go pull oil out of the North Sea or chip of big chunks of the alpine glaciers.
EU a stifling bureaucratic mess,
The Fishing Industry in Ireland is not just a national scandal, it’s an international scandal. Our current Govt and previous Irish Govts have traded our fishing rights for EU favor, decimating communities, livelihoods and future generations.
When an Achill Island fisherman is banned from catching salmon on his own shore line, the same way his father and forefathers have done ( and there is an abundance of stock) whilst Spanish and French boats work virtually unregulated in front of him, rubbing his nose in S*** ,laughing at him and discarding lesser quality fish to only keep premium fish for their quota, then something very very serious is wrong. Nobody is policing these foreign trawlers in any real sense.
Perhaps in terms of fishing one can see the advantage of Britex. Foreign boats are raping our shores in front of our eyes, and their is more departmental scrutiny on the simple fisherman in a lobster boat than there is on large foreign trawlers that are blatantly bending and abusing the regulations. We are literally being made a laughing stock and we have traded off one of this countries most precious resources for the EU 30 pieces of silver….
There is no “abundance” of wild salmon. Some experts believe the Atlantic salmon will be extinct in 20 years due to climate change.
@David Murphey: So tell us David… were did you get this scientific evidence ? or is it just a verbal shotgun attempt at justifying your position…explain further. I tell you what, go up to Donegal, ask the fishermen , fishermen who have long respected, protected and cared for the salmon resource, as have generations before them..ask them..ask the men at the coal face…because I tell you something, whats coming out of Europe in terms of evidence is at direct conflict to whats actually happening on the ground.
The level of Salmon taken by Irish fishermen has always been sustainable to the resource, a resource that is still rich today. Ask the lobster fishermen, ask anyone who net fishes for bait what they catch as their nets rise…. or maybe you would prefer to listen to a faceless EU who’s doesn’t even know were Donegal is on the map, but eats our cod for his fancy lunch in the Brussels canteen !
@CJ Stewart: It is Irish laws which ban the commercial fishing of wild sea salmon to allow spawning to take place in Irish rivers. The fishing fleets are not interested in salmon as most of it is farmed nowadays.
@CJ Stewart: I think that the Donegal fishermen you mention have been feeding you a line, the only salmon they are catching has been poached in our rivers. There are very strict controls and licensing required when fishing for trout and salmon. Fishing for lobster is regulated to size and only male species may be caught.
An abundance of wild atlantic salmon, the statistics for rod caught salmon would contradict that statement and i would be of the opinion that no form of commercial fishing is sustainable on the scale that it is happening at the moment.
@Chris Kirk: Sorry Chris Krik, but to be honest you haven’t a clue what you are talking about…I’m sorry if that offends, but it is a well known fact that there is sufficient numbers of wild salmon to sustain our own domestic industry. These are wild salmon caught in the Atlantic, an industry that has seen generation after generation of Donegal fishermen harvest ..nobody is talking about river salmon and nobody is mentioning poaching…. So have some respect on who you sterotype
As for Donegal fishermen spinning a yarn, I think not only are doing them a terrible injustice, you are doing the same to their families, communities and jobs ..and to all the losses that they have endured whilst the rest of Ireland applauded the EU…. perhaps if the ignorance that you display wasn’t so widespread, then such apathetic attitude to one of Ireland’s key natural industries would not have been decimated and give away in the way it has, handed over two the greedy hands of foreigners and EU officials. If it happened on this scale to any other industry there in Ireland there would be a national out cry.
So do me a favor, if you haven’t anything constructive to add, don’t rant your stereotypical nonsense at people who care, know what what they are talking about and have a genuine wish to save jobs and communities within our fishing industry for future generations
@CJ Stewart: Ha ha I spent fifteen years working in the fish industry with Donegal people and you say I haven’t a clue…
@Chris Kirk: well you havn’t much respect for them obviously !
@CJ Stewart, it’s not the Spanish or French rubbing our noses in it. They are just doing what they’re allowed to. The ones rubbing our noses in it are the triumvirate of parties that have ruled the state since its inception. They care nothing for this country, people or resources. If they could make it legal, they would sell the children of the poor for organ harvesting. Until the people of Ireland overthrow this farce of a republic and bring in a second republic that actually belongs to the people, you can forget about anything changing
Less Pollack? we can’t catch Polish people anymore? Lol … its pollock not pollack
Reminds me of the wire.
@KevJ: The Greek will sort them out.
@Keith Fay: Correct, it’s Pollock…although it can alternatively be spelled pollack…and there is plenty of them…plenty enough to put on many a hungry Irish plate…but we are not allowed….mind you, there’s plenty to put on many a french and Spanish hungry plate, yet they are allowed …????
Total joke more scraps from Europe our own fishery officers can’t even challenge Spanish boats when landing cause they don’t know what quota the boats have all they can catch them on red tape and they don’t spend 24 hours in harbour so don’t have to pay any dues they fish non stop in vigo you can’t even get to harbour unless you have a pass all they are doing is raping our seas
Gotta ensure Europe get what’s theirs now …
It’s been estimated 200 billion has been taken from our fisheries since we joined the eu all for in exchange of a few roads and a few cheques to the farmers.the only politician I’ve seen stand up to this is Luke flanagan in Brussels.our government has robbed us
@dick dastardly: there’s a little wall – the remains of a small country bridge, near where my mum lives, sheltered as it is from the worst of the weather you can still see the white painted ”EEC NO!” that some Cavan rebel of my childhood put there. As a gosson I recall it painted all over the roads of my town. Wise men they were then, not like the gombeens and gobshiites that sold the country for a mess of CAP pottage.
@John O’Driscoll: Cavan is not even on the coast……
@Chris Kirk: true, but irrelevant. I worked in the fisheries sector and have fished all my life sea lake and river.
@John O’Driscoll: What of it, i simply stated that Cavan isn’t on the coast
True but irrelevant.
I think there should be a total ban on fishing for at least two years because if we keep going the way we are there will be no fish left! How much is wasted at sea?
And how would the Irish fishermen make their living in those 2 years?
@Linda Hughes: ‘If we keep going the way we are ‘….?????? ….Linda is not us, it’s the vast array of trawlers and super trawlers from across the European continent that are stealing our natural resource….it certainly is not us. We have one of the worlds best premium fishing grounds on the west coast of Ireland, we aren’t allowed to fish it to any were near the capacity our previous generations have done for years, but foreign boats are, in fact they are fishing it to full capacity and sending it’s product all over Europe and further a field, whilst we look on..helpless !
@Linda Hughes: Haddock is a far better fish to eat than cod or pollack anyway so the ban shouldn’t worry most people.
As much of a welcome raising the quotas for Irish fisherman is, the more appropriate action would have been to decrease the quotas of non Irish fishing vessels.
Nice of Germany,sorry,Brussels,to allow Irish fishermen the right to catch fish,in Irish waters.
EU fisheries policy isn’t just all a cod it’s a load of pollacks as well.
@Stopit, the estimate comes from Dr Karevn Divine of UCD!
Great even more ‘smoked cod surprise ‘ at the chipper now!
I despair for out seas. Offshore fisheries destroyed by supertrawlers and inshore fisheries destroyed by Irish boats being allowed to overfish. Imcreased Quotas and discards doing untold damage that will end up with fisheries collapsing completely.
You must know very little of the small inshore fleet of boats who struggle every week to make a few quid weather conditions fishery officers seals eaten all the catch all they are left with is pots and that is hard work to make a wage risking there life’s to put food on the table
“Long term sustainability of our stocks” …. what a load of pollocks…
I was over in Iceland last week, a trawler came in at 8 am. it had tonnes and tonnes of cod and haddock all over 2 feet long. Plenty of fish. The EU has been a disaster for Ireland and we should invite Nigel Farage over to kick start a new anti EU campaign,. I will take the roll of leader and get Ireland out soon
Our fish are always taking a battering.
Megrim was a non quota fish up to 3 years ago and now it’s a quota species
have your say