www.inshore-ireland.com The Marine & Freshwater Environment Publication
€2.50/£2.10
WHAT ARE THE VALUES OF ECOSYSTEM SERVICES TO THE MARINE ENVIRONMENT?
Pgs 6-7
REMEMBERING
RICHIE FLYNN
Pgs 18-20
Autumn 2018 Vol 14 Issue 3
ONLINE EDITION
You can now view the Summer issue on www.inshore-ireland.com or you can follow us on Twitter www.twitter.com/inshore_ireland and Facebook www.facebook.com/InshoreIreland
A blue revolution on the horizon for small-scale fisheries? Gillian Mills
“
It is high time that small-scale fishers become one of the main beneficiaries of European funding. It is justifiable to safeguard and brighten the future for the 80% of the EU fishing fleet which is small in scale and employs over 50% of the workforce, as well as for thousands of directly and indirectly dependent jobs for all workers along the value chain.” Brian O’Riordan, deputy director of the LIFE platform
(Low Impact Fishers of Europe) and Marcin Ruciński spoke to Inshore Ireland following the publication of the European Commission’s proposal on the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund covering the years 2021-2027. Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Commissioner Karmenu Vella and the ‘Annual Economic Report’ of the scientific, technical and economic committee on fisheries (STECF) however paint a stark picture of the challenges facing this sector. In Tallinn, Estonia last year, Vella highlighted that 53 out of 135 coastal fleets were loss making.
“Entire coastal communities risk devastating losses in income and jobs”.
LACK OF DATA
For Ireland, the 2017 STECF report notes that the fishing industry is primarily based in rural, often deprived, coastal areas. ‘As such, income derived from fishing, aquaculture, and the wider seafood sector is extremely important to these local economies.” It adds however that the lack of reliable data for small-scale coastal fisheries ‘remains problematic, particularly for vessels less than 10 metres’. While this report attempts
to estimate the true value of the sector to local economies, there is an ongoing concern that the true value remains, at best, underestimated.’ In a report on fish producer organisations in the EU, LIFE highlights that the four POs recognised in Ireland include only 10% of the fleet by vessel numbers but account for 90% by volume of the Irish fish catch. For the most part, small-scale fish producers are excluded from POs and access to quota. According to Marcin Ruciński, LIFE’s Coordinator for the Baltic and North Sea, in the Baltic Sea only the small-scale fleets in
two Member States (MS) out of eight were actually making net profits in 2015. “This contrasts markedly with the larger scale sector that have been making record profits thank to cheap fuel and access to mass markets”.
INSHORE RECOGNITION
The new EMFF includes an entire section devoted to small-scale fisheries with two key articles on action plans and investments. All MS are obliged to submit action plans on small scale fisheries as part of their national Operational Programmes.
»» page 16
October 10, 1918, RMS Leinster was torpedoed in the Irish Sea by a German U-boat. 555 lives were lost. (Centenary event and book review, pg28). Image courtesy of Ian Lawler collection)