Fish producers have issued a call to the European Commission to ban Norway from fishing in Irish waters.
The Killybegs-based Irish Fish Producers Organisation claims 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 Ireland’s 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.”
The IFPO shared this 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.
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.”
