Fish producers have issued a call to ban Norway from fishing in Irish waters. The Irish Fish Producers Organisation say Norway’s overfishing practices are the main cause of a scientifically recommended mackerel quota cut of 22% next year, which will hit Ireland hardest.
The IFPO say Irelands small fishing fleet stands to lose over €10 million in 2025 from the mackerel cut, because we have the largest share of the EU western mackerel quotas. “This is a hammer blow for Ireland as we already lost 26 % of our mackerel allowance to the UK in the Brexit deal,” says IFPO chief executive, Aodh O Donnell.
The IFPO say this is the third year in a row of quota cuts which threaten the viability of Ireland’s mackerel fishing fleet and the onshore fish processing sector.
“Every European country has a responsibility to fish sustainably to protect fish stocks,” says Aodh O Donnell, chief executive of the IFPO. “The EU and Irish fishers have managed the shared mackerel stocks sustainably. But non-EU member, Norway, has been setting unilateral quotas and overfishing by up to 45% above recommended levels for at least three years now.”
O Donnell says Norway has been systematically ignoring the scientific advice and the EU has failed to curb these practices. “The rogue players of the North, mainly Norway, the Faroes and Russia, continue their policy of fishing as much as they like of our shared migratory stock of mackerel. They do so with impunity because they consider that the EU will never apply sanctions to them. In fact, the EU inadvertently approves this overfishing by trading access to EU fishing waters with Norway, on the basis of their unsustainable unilateral quotas.”
For example, the EU signed a deal permitting Norway to fish almost 200,000 Metric Tonnes (MT) of blue whiting in Ireland’s EU fishing waters this year. In comparison, Ireland is permitted to catch less than 60,000 MT of blue whiting in our own waters. Norway’s deal is worth about €50m while Ireland’s quota is worth just €15m, and Ireland got almost nothing out of this deal, says the IFPO.
“In essence, the EU is rewarding Norway’s bad behaviour with a sweet deal which takes taking advantage of Irelands marine resources. “Norway rightly considers the EU to be weak and toothless and not prepared to defend Irish interests. At the same time, other EU members do make significant gains from EU deals with Norway.”
The IFPO say it’s time to ban Norway and other non-EU States from fishing in Irish waters unless there is a reciprocal exchange in fish quotas for us. “Norway only appreciates their adversary if they adopt a tough position, so it’s time the EU stepped up for Ireland.”
“The IFPO wants a renegotiation of the Norway-EU blue whiting deal, in a way which benefits Ireland proportionately, as similar deals do for our sister EU states. Otherwise, non-EU access must be blocked and we must make this an election issue for our coastal communities. We have a new EU Parliament and Commission and change is needed now. The Irish Government must demand parity of treatment for Ireland’s fishing industry on this issue at EU level.”
The 22% cut in mackerel quotas was recommended in a recent report by the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES). That report can be downloaded here. ICES is an intergovernmental marine science organization, who provide impartial evidence on the state and sustainable use of our seas and oceans.
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