Ireland scenery fishermen full#
Ireland scenery fishermen series#

“Pictures of damaged fish,” they say (September issue, The Skipper), “give no context or information on proximity to seal haul-outs or soak times”. Image by Daragh DevaneĪccording to the Irish Seal Sanctuary (ISS), the problem between seals and fishermen relates to how inshore fishermen fish (or maybe even that they fish). “Over the years the losses of monkfish from tangle and trammel nets climbed to a level where we were constantly losing a third of our fish to seals,” he said. “To say we were shocked would be an understatement,” he said. Up until the mid-eighties, he said, “there was hardly a seal to be seen” and none had ever bothered them until one particular day, out of the blue, a steady stream of monkfish heads, minus the tails came over the hauler.

Kieran, whose activity is currently limited to the various pot fisheries with the occasional netting for spider crab and line fishing for pollock, began fishing in 1977. Kieran Healy, who fishes single-handed on his 7-metre vessel from Crosshaven also stopped fishing for monkfish on account of seals. This, he said, makes this fishery unviable. When jigging the seals break the line before the fish come up into the boat and you can lose up to thirty traces a day at a cost of eight euros per day on top of the loss of fish. Of the other 50 per cent hauled in, 30 per cent is damaged by seals. When gillnetting for pollock, the fisherman said, seals take and damage at least 50 per cent of their catch from the net. 95 per cent of his catch was being destroyed by seals. On account of this, the fisherman, who jigs and gillnets for pollock and tangle nets for monkfish, stopped fishing for monk altogether five years ago.

Seal numbers, he said, have exploded off the south-west coast of Ireland in the past ten years. Back in 1994, when he began fishing, he said he might have had a problem with one or two seals a day, now he could have an issue with up to twenty following him and feeding from his fishing gear. One fisherman, who fishes for pollock, crayfish and monk off the south-west coast told The Skipper that though seals have always been an issue for them, in the last ten years the issue has become particularly bad. The issue, say the fishermen, has had several effects on their livelihoods – working to narrow their economic, social and ecological options, over the past decades. According to those fishermen, the issue of seal depredation is very real and is one that has become worse over time. Gathered with the help of the National Inshore Fishermen’s Association and the National Inshore Fishermen’s Organisation (NIFA/NIFO), here we are sharing the voices of inshore fishermen themselves on the issue.

Ireland scenery fishermen series#

Over the past months, The Skipper has carried a series of articles and letters from various stakeholders discussing the issue of seal-fishery interactions in Ireland. We focus on the ocean issues”.įaroese community member 1: “Are you not obliged to put this question into the real context?” Sea Shepherd Participant: “Well we are a marine conservation organisation. Let’s say we switch the whale…to give you…you get the whale and we get a cow instead from America or somewhere, for example. But the killing of whales, it means we eat less imported meat.”įaroese community member 1: “Let me try to rephrase the question. Of food from everywhere.”įaroese community member 2: “Ya.

Ireland scenery fishermen full#

The supermarkets are full of lamb from New Zealand. Sea Shepherd participant: “You do it already. Protect our planet so we have one.”įaroese community member 1: “You can’t grow many things here in the Faroe Islands!”įaroese community member 2: “Do you think we should go the supermarket and buy groceries and fruit and vegetables imported from the other side of the world? Pamela: “Be vegetarian! And protect the whales. How many whales do you need?”įaroese community member 1: “If we are not eating whale meat maybe…eh…once a month what are we supposed to eat instead? Do you have any ideas?” Why would you need to kill a whale? Why would you need to kill anything? I mean you are killing all these whales here for this small…you know, community. The exchange in the scene goes like this: The mainstream narrative surrounding seals, fishing and fishermen in Ireland (and further) reminds me of a scene from ‘The Islands and the Whales’ - the film that looks at Grindadráp, the annual pilot whale hunt carried out by the Faroese - when international ‘visitors’ Pamela Anderson and Sea Shepherd hold a meeting with members of the Faroese community, and tell them that rather than eat whales they should become vegetarian.