Irish fishing industry organisations have united in a call for an “urgent review” of the implementation of the Common Fisheries Policy.

The organisations are also calling for a fairer share to rights to fish in the Irish exclusive economic zone (EEZ).

This follows a series of meetings recently in Brussels, organised and hosted by Sinn Féin MEP Chris McManus.

The Irish Fish Producers’ Organisation (IFPO), the Irish South and West Fish Producers’ Organisation and the Irish Fish Processors and Exporters Association were represented in Brussels, along with the Irish Fishing and Seafood Alliance, Foyle Fishermen’s Co-op and Galway & Aran Fishermen’s Co-op.

“Other nations catch about €250m worth of fish a year in our waters - almost twice as much as the Irish fleet catches,” IFPO chief executive Aodh O’Donnell said in a statement.

Quotas allocated by the EU to the Irish fishing fleet amount to “a paltry 18% of the volume of fish in our 200-mile Zone every year”, O’Donnell said.

“Other nations take the balance of the fish, but bizarrely some EU states are unable to catch their annual quota allocations in this EU zone,” he said.

“So, we are calling on the EU to – at the very least – enable reallocation of annual ‘uncaught’ quotas in Ireland’s EEZ to Irish vessels to give us a more equitable share,” O’Donnell explained.

Meetings were held with the European Parliament fisheries committee (Pech), and the Director General of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (DG Mare).

Mr O’Donnell says the Irish delegation outlined ways of allocating the uncaught quotas of other EU states - for species such as langoustines and monkfish - to Ireland.

“We support calls for a sensible mechanism for an equitable redistribution of all the annual uncaught EU fish quota in EU waters. We acknowledge that any such redistribution would take account of the quota rights of each of these member states,” he said

“At present, non-EU fishing vessels can fish large volumes of pelagic fish on Ireland’s west coast, based on annual access agreements negotiated to benefit other EU states,” he said.

“ At the same time, the Irish fleet finds itself tied up at port, hindered from catching these same fish by low quotas. This needs to be addressed in a meaningful way so that our share of the important catch is more equitable,” he said.

The delegation also told EU officials and MEPs that the quotas transferred to Britain under the Brexit Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) were inequitable.

“In particular, Irish fishing vessels were excluded from traditional fishing grounds in the waters around Rockall. So, we made the case that quotas needed to be adjusted to rebalance long-term losses and to restore access to these areas,” O’Donnell said.

He says fishing organisations are united in a call for an urgent review of how the CFP is implemented.

“In particular, we want changes in how the annual quota of fish is allocated to the Irish fishing fleet and to rebalance the significant Brexit losses. We also believe allocations should be based on having greater rights to fish in our own [coastal] zones,” O’Donnell said.

“This would be more democratic, and reduce the carbon footprint of EU fishing vessels, as they would travel shorter distances. It would also strengthen the economic and social linkage between those catching the fish and their coastal communities,” he said.

Ireland has no quota for Atlantic bluefin tuna, which is in “abundance” during the season off the Irish coast, O’Donnell said.

He said it could be worth €150 million annually in revenues to the Irish fishing and tourism sectors.

Large Japanese vessels are currently travelling halfway around the world to harvest these “highly valued” fisheries, and allocation to Ireland could also reduce the carbon footprint for this sector, he noted.

He said European Commission officials “took note of the submissions and undertook to have an additional follow-up meeting in Ireland”.

Is Derry on the island of Ireland? That’s a question being asked by fishing industry representatives in a bitter row over how the State’s sea fisheries regulator has been handling landings of valuable blue whiting.

The Irish Fish Producers’ Organisation (IFPO) and IFPEA have called on Minister for Marine Charlie McConalogue and the Government to “play a vital leadership role”, warning of losses of up to 40 million euro annually for Killybegs if the dispute over how landings are monitored by the Sea Fisheries Protection Authority (SFPA) is not resolved.

The row erupted after Danish vessel Ruth headed back to Denmark instead of landing some 1200 tonnes of blue whiting for human consumption into Killybegs, Co Donegal on March 31st.

The SFPA had directed that the catch be landed over a weighbridge instead of a pierside system. A Norwegian vessel then opted to landed into Derry over the border, rather than into Killybegs, while a number of other vessels abandoned attempts to land into the port or sold fish for fishmeal.

IFPO chief executive Brendan Byrne said that the SFPA was “over-interpreting” the common EU regulations, leaving the Irish industry at a substantial competitive and financial disadvantage compared to other EU coastal states.

The SFPA said that a flowscale system at Killybegs harbour “is approved for the weighing of bulk pelagic fish in the 95% of instances where a supervised weighing upon landing under the terms of the EU approved interim control plan is not required”.

The SFPA said it was “not a system that meets the terms of the EU approved interim control plan in the 5% of bulk pelagic landings where a supervised weighing upon landing is required”.

“Operators can choose to land a catch at a port in another jurisdiction – including both EU and non-EU countries – before transporting and processing the catch in the Republic of Ireland,” the SFPA said.

“However, the catch must be weighed on landing pierside in the landing state before transportation to the Republic of Ireland,” it said.

“A Common Control Programme that would permit transport to the Republic of Ireland for weighing after a landing in Northern Ireland does not [exist] and has never existed,” it said.

It warned that any “misuse” of the system “has the potential to jeopardise the EU Commission approved exemption for the entire fishing and seafood processing sector”.

“If this exemption is revoked all 20,000 landings of pelagic and demersal fish annually could be required to be weighed pierside,” the SFPA said.

The IFPO’s Aodh O’Donnell had said the debacle is “damaging to the reputation of quality Irish seafood and is losing business for our seafood exporters”.

“Regrettably, the blue whiting season is now ending, and the losses suffered by the industry and local coastal communities cannot be undone,” O’Donnell said.

O'Donnell explained the background to Wavelengths..and apologies for the slight generator hum...he is in Killybegs!