asked the Minister for the Marine the steps he intends to take to designate Schull, County Cork, as a fishery landing harbour to comply with EC rules and thereby allow the herring fleet to land their catches on this newly reconstructed pier which cost almost £1 million to complete in 1986.
Written Answers. - Schull (County Cork) Pier.
13.
To explain the background to the designation of ports let me clarify the objectives for the Celtic Sea herring fisheries.
My primary objective is to establish a regime of management which can protect the livelihood of fishermen from overfishing and consequent collapse of the stock. This happened in the recent past and led to the closure of the fishery for a number of years.
My secondary objective is to ensure that with available quotas the fishery is conducted in a fashion that maximises the amount and duration of sustainable income and employment in fishing and fish processing.
It is against this background that my Department met representatives of fishing organisations in early September in an effort to agree a regime for management of the Celtic Sea herring.
Designating ports of landing is, as I have explained an integral part of effective management regimes. Unfortunately the different interests representing the industry could not agree on the ports which should be designated. I thus chose four ports — Castletownbere, Dunmore East, Cobh and Baltimore to cover those areas for which the fishery was open between 16 and 30 October.
I regret that it was not possible to designate more ports on the south coast, but this would make management considerably less effective, and the future of fishing interests considerably less secure. I have no plans at this stage to approve landings of Celtic Sea herring in Schull between now and Christmas. This is in line with the general trend where the herring stocks move eastwards and fishing during December/January is concentrated off Dunmore East and possibly Cobh. My Department would be happy to examine any agreed alternative ports to those designated on the south coast that may be suggested and agreed by representative industry groups.