With the new Fisheries Control Regulation currently before the European Parliament, Social Democrats Holly Cairns TD and Councillor Ross O’Connell have written to MEPs on the Parliament’s PECH Committee in support of CCTV on ‘supertrawlers’.

The measure, they say, will “provide greater monitoring of their activities” and “help protect sea life and Irish fishing communities.”

Cork South-West TD Holly says: “Supertrawlers are an obscene industrialised version of fishing. Massive nets indiscriminately sweep up all forms of fish and sea mammals which further decimate fish stocks and damage Irish coastal and island communities.

“Supertrawlers are the very opposite of sustainable fishing. We need more oversight of their activities, including the provision in new EU regulations on allowing CCTV to monitor compliance with landing obligations.”

Ross says, “Fishing policy should be about supporting local communities and ensuring sustainable practices. We need interventions like this one to highlight the harm being done by these factory sized vessels. The Social Democrats are committed to working towards an EU-wide ban on super-trawlers.”

A promise to work towards an EU-wide ban on ‘supertrawlers’ and ensure current fisheries controls are strictly observed and adequately resourced was one of the fisheries-related points in the Social Democrats’ General Election Manifesto last spring.

One aspect of the new Fisheries Control Regulation concerns the installation of CCTV on a certain percentage of vessels fishing for species subject to the Landing Obligation, according to various ‘risk categories.’

Photo Credit: Visserijnieuws