January 9th 2004“Fishery rules a time bomb for industry”
The Irish South and West Fishermens Organisation has called on all Irish fishing organisations to support it’s proposals to move away from traditional fish quota management regimes. The organisation is concerned that the present system of managing quotas will eventually force vessels out of business. The Irish regime is unique in Europe with vessels being allocated a monthly quota for each species. If a vessel has in excess of the monthly amount on board they are arrested and usually taken to the circuit court.
Jason Whooley, manager of the Irish South and West Fishermens Organisation states “If a skipper is taken to the Circuit Court the maximum fine is €120,000 per offence even though he may have only marginally exceeded his quota, in addition his catch and fishing gear will be confiscated. Our fishermen cannot afford fines like this, a similar offence in Finland for example will cost their fishermen just €137. An EU report published last year showed that Ireland treats its fishermen more harshly than any other member state. The report showed that all 42 breaches of fisheries rules in Ireland went to court while in Spain only 4 out of 3595 offences were criminally prosecuted. We’re not in any way advocating overfishing but surely the penalty should fit the offence. Right now it’s like giving someone life imprisonment for littering. It is sheer madness, treating fishermen like common criminals is unacceptable”
Under the IS&WFO proposals the quota would be managed by the fishermens organisations themselves similar to the arrangements already in place in Spain and France. According to Jason Whooley “The Killybegs Fishermens Organisation are fully supportive of the changes, now we need the other national organisations to row in. It is obvious from the latest navy statistics that the only ones suffering under the present arrangements are Irish fishermen. We cannot continue on our present course, we need changes now to give us a level playing pitch with the other vessels fishing in Irish waters”
