An Irish Angler's World

Internationally

• Set up a global network of well managed, strategically sited, Marine Protection Areas, covering at least 10% of the worlds seas and oceans.
• Ban all destructive fishing methods, in particular beam trawling, and encourage the commercial sector to use more ecologically friendly methods of catching.
• In tandem utilise artisanal and more traditional methods of catching seafood.
• Ban the practice of discarding non quota and juvenile fish.
• Ban the practice of high grading.
• Move from a single species to an eco-system approach to fisheries management.
• Reduce the world wide fishing fleet to a level where it is in balance with available fish stocks, while equally adjusting effort accordingly.
• Stop the exploitation of third world fish stocks by first world commercial fleets.
• Give real protection to the North Atlantic Bluefin Tuna. In particular, put a stop to Bluefin ranching, and highlight the practise for what it is, an under hand way of dodging what are already ridiculous quotas. “Live Tuna transferred to sea cages and fattened up should not be classified as farmed”. Any Bluefin Tuna caught at sea, whether kept alive or dead should be registered as caught, and therefore become part of the quota. This is not the case at present. Realistically call a moratorium on Bluefin Tuna fishing and give the species a chance to recover.

Nationally

• Maintain the commercial ban on Bass fishing set up in 1990. The evidence is all to clear that Bass are making a comeback. Proof indeed that the obvious works.
• Reduce the Irish commercial fleet by 40%, in tandem with adjustments in effort.
• Encourage and develop well managed artisinal inshore commercial fisheries that use ecologically sustainable fishing methods.
• In conjunction set up an inshore coastal no trawling limit to allow sensitive areas of sea bed to recover, so hopefully in time restoring nursery areas and shellfish beds.
• Set up a network of local MPA’s with particular reference to migratory routes, spawning and nursery areas.
• Activate a nationwide consumer education campaign highlighting the need to buy only sustainably caught fish, what questions need to be asked, and why.
• Incorporate into the school curriculum the importance of the marine environment and its biodiversity in a global context and why it is important that we protect it.
• Include a wider stakeholder involvement in sea fisheries management and development decisions.

See also: The Cawley Report on the Irish Seafood Industry.

Published April 18, 2010 @16:33.pm