Flotillas of fishing boats at protests in Cork and Dublin caught the public's attention this summer, but West Cork's fishermen say the problems they face still threaten their very way of life.
Interesting take. On trawling: the argument that it’s like ploughing a field shows a staggering lack of understanding of the difference in scale and frequency of now versus then on top of increased fragility of systems under stress from climate change. Bottom trawling for scallops is illegal because it destroys the entire ecosystem. Yet it still goes on in SACs like Blacksod in Mayo. Illegal immigration and exploitation of undocumented workers needs to be dealt with so good you highlight this, and fishermen (thanks for not using the hideous word “fishers”) and women obviously need a just transition from an industry that must allow for more marine recovery. Redeploy and reimagine rope farming for mussels, etc. It is a notoriously corrupt industry. Killybegs has a fierce reputation. You probably need a sheriff to wade in and clean things up. Who, though?
Hi Lucy, yes it's interesting to see the attitude reflected in that quote about trawling vs ploughing, which I found especially ironic given what we know about ploughing and the denutrification of soil! But...."A just transition from an industry" - this is someone else deciding that their way of life is no longer valid, even as they watch enormous EU factory ships causing untold damage in waters they are no longer allowed to fish? It's not a "just transition" to facilitate the push towards more mechanisation and ever-bigger scale resource exploitation while disempowering and invalidating a traditional way of life, which is the EU's current bloc-think, inhuman approach. Exactly the reverse is what we need IMO: shut down the factory ships and make Irish fishing actually sustainable? Unless you believe no form of fishing is ever sustainable? I don't believe this because humans have fished since probably before they were human - the problem is the advance of enabling technologies which allow for fishing which is simply too successful and efficient.
I think you're right about a just transition and I well remember living in Mayo and hearing about and watching that massive trawler from Achill (Atlantic Dawn - ironically Irish owned, though of course the vast majority of supertrawlers operating in Irish waters are not, as you rightly point out) ploughing up off the coast. So yes, there's a huge amount of unfairness inherent in the current system. Overhauling an entire industry is of course enormously difficult, particularly when it's tied in to the EU and quotas and their distribution has gone against the interests of Irish stakeholders. But I also think that we have to reimagine what it is to fish for a living nowadays. I had a similar conversation with someone about turf cutting, that it was traditional and had gone on for millennia. No doubt that's true and perhaps if we cut by hand, there's still a case to be made for small scale industry. Turf cutting could be combined with biodiversity enrichment and perhaps some innovator could come up with ways to make a living out of, say, harvesting herbs, or beekeeping on reseeded heather on uplands (I'm not saying either are realistic but they're examples). What I am saying is that keeping people in jobs is vital, but that those jobs need to change. The idea of "sea gardening" with long line mussel cultures on ropes that then get inhabited by various seaweeds and then provide nurseries for spawning fish and therefore attract bigger fish was talked about some time ago on the radio with a marine scientist from Newfoundland or Nova Scotia (somewhere in Canada where they have that weird mixture of Irish, Scots and Canadian accent!). It's by having a regenerative approach to industries like the fishing industry that we can keep it alive. And absolutely, by reviewing the legislation, and hammering with huge taxes the supertrawlers, and patrolling fishing grounds, until they realise it's not worth their while. Oh, yes, and not trusting Barnier with an Irish deal...
Interesting take. On trawling: the argument that it’s like ploughing a field shows a staggering lack of understanding of the difference in scale and frequency of now versus then on top of increased fragility of systems under stress from climate change. Bottom trawling for scallops is illegal because it destroys the entire ecosystem. Yet it still goes on in SACs like Blacksod in Mayo. Illegal immigration and exploitation of undocumented workers needs to be dealt with so good you highlight this, and fishermen (thanks for not using the hideous word “fishers”) and women obviously need a just transition from an industry that must allow for more marine recovery. Redeploy and reimagine rope farming for mussels, etc. It is a notoriously corrupt industry. Killybegs has a fierce reputation. You probably need a sheriff to wade in and clean things up. Who, though?
Hi Lucy, yes it's interesting to see the attitude reflected in that quote about trawling vs ploughing, which I found especially ironic given what we know about ploughing and the denutrification of soil! But...."A just transition from an industry" - this is someone else deciding that their way of life is no longer valid, even as they watch enormous EU factory ships causing untold damage in waters they are no longer allowed to fish? It's not a "just transition" to facilitate the push towards more mechanisation and ever-bigger scale resource exploitation while disempowering and invalidating a traditional way of life, which is the EU's current bloc-think, inhuman approach. Exactly the reverse is what we need IMO: shut down the factory ships and make Irish fishing actually sustainable? Unless you believe no form of fishing is ever sustainable? I don't believe this because humans have fished since probably before they were human - the problem is the advance of enabling technologies which allow for fishing which is simply too successful and efficient.
I think you're right about a just transition and I well remember living in Mayo and hearing about and watching that massive trawler from Achill (Atlantic Dawn - ironically Irish owned, though of course the vast majority of supertrawlers operating in Irish waters are not, as you rightly point out) ploughing up off the coast. So yes, there's a huge amount of unfairness inherent in the current system. Overhauling an entire industry is of course enormously difficult, particularly when it's tied in to the EU and quotas and their distribution has gone against the interests of Irish stakeholders. But I also think that we have to reimagine what it is to fish for a living nowadays. I had a similar conversation with someone about turf cutting, that it was traditional and had gone on for millennia. No doubt that's true and perhaps if we cut by hand, there's still a case to be made for small scale industry. Turf cutting could be combined with biodiversity enrichment and perhaps some innovator could come up with ways to make a living out of, say, harvesting herbs, or beekeeping on reseeded heather on uplands (I'm not saying either are realistic but they're examples). What I am saying is that keeping people in jobs is vital, but that those jobs need to change. The idea of "sea gardening" with long line mussel cultures on ropes that then get inhabited by various seaweeds and then provide nurseries for spawning fish and therefore attract bigger fish was talked about some time ago on the radio with a marine scientist from Newfoundland or Nova Scotia (somewhere in Canada where they have that weird mixture of Irish, Scots and Canadian accent!). It's by having a regenerative approach to industries like the fishing industry that we can keep it alive. And absolutely, by reviewing the legislation, and hammering with huge taxes the supertrawlers, and patrolling fishing grounds, until they realise it's not worth their while. Oh, yes, and not trusting Barnier with an Irish deal...