Several southeast-based Irish fishing vessels have been ordered to return to port by the State’s Sea-Fisheries Protection Authority (SFPA) so as to carry out an investigation of alleged infringement of whitefish quotas.
The 15 vessels, owned by the O’Flaherty brothers of Kilmore Quay, Co Wexford, have complied with the order affecting 100 workers but the owners intend to have an urgent meeting with the fisheries authority in an attempt to resolve the issue, The Irish Times reported.
Some of our skippers have a problem in discarding fish which is over-quota, and ironically this time next year it is going to become an offence to do that for certain species under the EU’s new discard ban, O’Flaherty stated.
According to the ship owners, the fleet, which includes 10 beam trawlers, three whitefish boats and two scallop boats, was working with ridiculously small quotas while France, Spain and Belgium have quotas in excess of Irish limits in the area.
Irish fishermen complain their French counterparts have a quota in one area of the Irish Sea for 8,000 tonnes of megrim in an area of the Irish Sea while Irish boats have a quota for just 3,000 tonnes.
The SFPA is just doing its job, in implementing policy, but a policy that forces us to work with such small quotas is wrong, O’Flaherty complained, pointing out that despite being their best month, they are forced to remain in port.
The vessel owners claim that 80 Kilmore Quay trawler workers may lose their jobs as long as the cessation comes to an end and the fishing permits are restored straight away.
In addition 18 fish factory workers will be made redundant due to the lack of whitefish stocks to process.
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