This article is from page 44 of the 2008-07-22 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 44 JPG
IRISH fishermen could finally be set for a slice of good news if a new scheme for utilising over-catch is adopted in the EU.
Speaking at the Council of Agri- culture and Fisheries Ministers in Brussels last Thursday, Clare TD and Junior Minister in the Depart- ment of Agriculture, Tony Killeen, made a proposal to the European Commission for the introduction of a pilot project to address the discard- ing of catches by Irish fishermen.
The Irish Department of Agricul- ture and its agencies the Marine Institute and BIM, in conjunction with the Federation of Irish Fisher- men (FIF), are developing the pilot
project, which is proposed to run for one year.
It will target unavoidable by-catch- es, in particular in the prawn fish- ery, where large scale discarding of marketable fish such as cod, which are caught over quota, is a particular problem.
These fisheries occur in the Irish Sea, Celtic Sea and off the west coast. The overall object will be to use more environmentally-friendly fishing gear to avoid catches of small fish in these fisheries and to reduce the occurrence of discarding of mar- ketable fish that cannot currently be landed under EU law if quotas are exhausted.
“The proposed project would be operated in conjunction with the pro-
ducer organisations that make up the FIF,’ he said.
‘The minister asked Commissioner Borg to give urgent consideration to this new proposal and to bring for- ward EU measures, which would al- low the new pilot project to be imple- mented as soon as possible.
“The additional quota will mean that this small quota can be set aside for unavoidable catches of cod by Irish fishermen in the Celtic Sea. This will help to reduce discarding of marketable cod in this fishery.”
The minister’s proposals, which he presented to Commissioner Borg, would mean that fishermen would be given an incentive to participate in the pilot phase. Vessels targeting prawns would have to be allocated
an additional discard quota by the EU, which would allow the landing of marketable fish that would other- wise be discarded. Fishermen would be allocated a share of the sale price of the fish to cover vessel-running costs. The remainder would be allo- cated to a charity.
Also at the Council of Ministers meeting this week, an amendment to the TAC and Quota Regulation for 2008 is due to be approved that results in an increase of 44 tonnes in Ireland’s allocation of cod in the Celtic Sea.
This increase came after sustained pressure by Ireland, after indications of improvement in the stock came from fisheries scientists earlier this year.