Celtic Sea Gillnetters are warning other fishermen of the dangers posed by discarded pelagic longline gear that has been appearing on the fishing grounds recently
Several Castletownbere vessels have reported to The Skipper of increased encounters with discarded longlines with hooks and leaders still attached that are floating just under the surface.
This poses a huge risk to vessels fishing in the area and steaming through to other grounds. One Skipper stated; “It is only a matter of time before some boat gets this gear in the prop and then you have a potentialy serious incident whih could disable the boat and put the crews lives in danger”
Fishermen who have retrieved the discarded longlines and brought them ashore have highlighted the extent of the problem. One vessel owner invited The Skipper to witness the amount of discarded longline gear his crew were dealing with on an ongoing basis. Up to 20km of pelagic longline with hooks still attached were recorded coming off his vessel at Dinish Island, Castletownbere. There was also a selection of small buoys that are used to keep the longlines foating just under the suface. The discarded longlines rapidly form into a sub surface floating ball in the sea currents and in some cases have sunk down to get entangled in gillnets. This is resulting in fishing time lost by crews that have to seperate these entanglements, sometime for up to 8 hours.
It is believed by the fishermen that the longlines originate from Spanish and Portuguese vessels that target Swordfish and Blue Shark in the Celtic Sea during late summer- early autumn and while every fishery is subject to gear loss it is apparent that these longlines had been cut at either end and left to drift.
One of the affected Skippers said: “It is time that there was more scrutiny of these vessels who are rarely seen in Irish ports. They fish in our waters every year and they only contribution they make is to leave their rubbish behind for Irish fishermen to deal with.”
