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Displaying items by tag: John Quinlan

The chairman of the Irish Bass Group gave his praise to the fish described as the 'wolf of the sea' at a recent awards day.
John Quinlan told his audience at the Irish Specimen Fish Committee awards that Ireland has "something truly unique" in a marine fish that is reserved for recreational angling.
He also noted that "in spite of 21 years of bass protection, we have never felt secure enough to build the type of industry that this unique opportunity should justify."
Quinlan explained how bass play "a vital role" in the biodiversity of our inland waters, highlighting the interdependence between bass and sea birds.
“There are still magic days to be had bass fishing," he said, adding his belief that "anglers have a right to be involved in the management of our bass stocks".
He continued: "We have looked after them very well over the last 21 years and earned the right to be involved in any decisions about how they should be managed in the future. If we are to be successful we need to be taken more seriously by our Government."
Quinlan pointed to the potential benefits of angling tourism, an area that "has been lacking for far too long".
“The French call bass ‘loupe de mer’ or ‘the wolf of the sea’," he added. "These beautiful fish have hunted in our waters for centuries and I hope they continue to do so for many years to come.”
The Irish Times has more on the story HERE.

The chairman of the Irish Bass Group gave his praise to the fish described as the 'wolf of the sea' at a recent angling awards day.

John Quinlan told his audience at the Irish Specimen Fish Committee awards that Ireland has "something truly unique" in a marine fish that is reserved for recreational angling.

He also noted that "in spite of 21 years of bass protection, we have never felt secure enough to build the type of industry that this unique opportunity should justify."

Quinlan explained how bass play "a vital role" in the biodiversity of our inland waters, highlighting the interdependence between bass and sea birds.

“There are still magic days to be had bass fishing," he said, adding his belief that "anglers have a right to be involved in the management of our bass stocks".

He continued: "We have looked after them very well over the last 21 years and earned the right to be involved in any decisions about how they should be managed in the future. If we are to be successful we need to be taken more seriously by our Government."

Quinlan pointed to the potential benefits of angling tourism, an area that "has been lacking for far too long".

“The French call bass ‘loupe de mer’ or ‘the wolf of the sea’," he added. "These beautiful fish have hunted in our waters for centuries and I hope they continue to do so for many years to come.” 

The Irish Times has more on the story HERE.

Published in Angling

About Brittany Ferries

In 1967 a farmer from Finistère in Brittany, Alexis Gourvennec, succeeded in bringing together a variety of organisations from the region to embark on an ambitious project: the aim was to open up the region, to improve its infrastructure and to enrich its people by turning to traditional partners such as Ireland and the UK. In 1972 BAI (Brittany-England-Ireland) was born.

The first cross-Channel link was inaugurated in January 1973, when a converted Israeli tank-carrier called Kerisnel left the port of Roscoff for Plymouth carrying trucks loaded with Breton vegetables such as cauliflowers and artichokes. The story, therefore, begins on 2 January 1973, 24 hours after Great Britain's entry into the Common Market (EEC).

From these humble beginnings however, Brittany Ferries as the company was re-named quickly opened up to passenger transport, then became a tour operator.

Today, Brittany Ferries has established itself as the national leader in French maritime transport: an atypical leader, under private ownership, still owned by a Breton agricultural cooperative.

Eighty five percent of the company’s passengers are British.

Key Brittany Ferries figures:

  • Turnover: €202.4 million (compared with €469m in 2019)
  • Investment in three new ships, Galicia plus two new vessels powered by cleaner LNG (liquefied natural gas) arriving in 2022 and 2023
  • Employment: 2,474 seafarers and shore staff (average high/low season)
  • Passengers: 752,102 in 2020 (compared with 2,498,354 in 2019)
  • Freight: 160,377 in 2020 (compared with 201,554 in 2019)
  • Twelve ships operating services that connect France, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Spain (non-Covid year) across 14 routes
  • Twelve ports in total: Bilbao, Santander, Portsmouth, Poole, Plymouth, Cork, Rosslare, Caen, Cherbourg, Le Havre, Saint-Malo, Roscoff
  • Tourism in Europe: 231,000 unique visitors, staying 2.6 million bed-nights in France in 2020 (compared with 857,000 unique visitors, staying 8,7 million bed-nights in 2019).