Deputy Deasy gave me notice of his intention to raise on the Adjournment the closure of the Celtic Sea herring fishery.
Adjournment Debate. - Herring Fishery Closure.
In good times Dunmore East at this time of the year would be a boom town. Unfortunately, the good times are over. Nowadays the fishermen and the onshore workers would be quite happy if they got a reasonable living for a couple of months of the year, particularly in December, January and early February. Back in the sixties and early seventies Dunmore East was so prosperous as a result of herring fishing in wintertime that it could have been compared with the Klondyke during the gold rush. There were fortunes made and fortunes spent. Generally there was a lot of money circulating and it was a very prosperous period for one and all. Now, in the language of the wild west, Dunmore East is like a ghost town because the herring fishery in the Celtic Sea is closed and has been closed virtually all winter.
I am asking the Minister here tonight to make some concession to people who traditionally lived off this form of fishing so that they will have some opportunity to survive. This is not the time of the year to fish for the white species. Seas are rough and what is caught, particularly in small boats, has to be got inshore so the fishermen have little option; they catch herring or go on the dole. The Dunmore herring fishery at this time of the year would normally sustain in Dunmore alone about 600 people — 200 onshore and 300 or 400 or more at sea. The processing went on in Dunmore itself and in the surrounding areas like New Ross in County Wexford, Ring in County Waterford and even extended along the southern coast to Cobh and Castletownbere. This year as much as we have seen is two weeks fishing in the month of January. Last year and previous years we had two and a half months fishing and people are really aggrieved.
I know there is a genuine problem of conservation and a need to retain stocks at an adequate level for future years. However, I do not believe the fishery is being organised in a proper manner. I do not believe things got so bad so quickly. I would like to see the Minister carry out a review of the way the amount of herring in the Celtic Sea is equated because I feel that a wrong picture is being drawn from the type of scientific studies being made. Not alone are we to suffer this loss commercially in the case of seagoing trawlers but even inshore fishermen who fish close to the shores in half deckers or 30 ft. boats cannot fish because of the recent prohibition order. These people are capable of making a living from herring from two sources, the herring itself and the more lucrative herring roe. That trade has built up enormously over the past seven or eight years. It is extremely unfortunate that we have seen a curtailment to the extent we have seen this year. It has taken £1 million out of the local economy. The loss to the people concerned in these small towns and villages such as Dunmore East, Passage East and Tramore, can be imagined. I would appeal to the Minister to see that the herring fishery in the Celtic Sea is organised in a better manner so that the people in each port depending on it for a living are given a fair crack of the whip.
I am grateful to Deputy Deasy for having raised this matter so that I can explain in some detail what the situation is with regard to the fisheries in the Celtic Sea.
The Deputy may recall that the closure of this fishery at end-November 1990 was the subject of an adjournment debate on 4 December last. I availed of that opportunity to explain the problems with the management of the Celtic Sea and the ongoing difficulties faced. I also explained how a system of local management involving all the various interests had effectively broken down and that the management arrangements for 1991 would be reviewed in consultation with the industry.
Accordingly, officials of my Department met representatives of the catching and processing sectors last December to consider a fishing regime which would best meet the needs of all concerned. After considerable discussion no agreement was reached between the sectors involved. In the absence of agreement I allocated 4,000 tonnes of the quota available to the spring fishery initially. I increased this figure later by 50 per cent to 6,000 tonnes at the request of the fishermen and processors. When this figure was reached I closed the fishery. It will open in the autumn to exploit the remaining 6,950 tonnes.
Failure to close the fishery at this juncture would result in a very small quota remaining for the autumn fishery. This would inevitably lead to an earlier closure than in 1990. Deputies will be aware that there was considerable disappointment when it closed on 30 November last.
A major difficulty in this fishery is that there are too many boats seeking a limited volume of fish. The number of boats participating in the spring fishery increased substantially in 1991. It is not possible to exploit the greater part of the quota in the spring fishery and also to have a herring quota sufficient for an autumn fishery that extends up to Christmas. In addition, as I already mentioned there is no agreement among the processing and catching sectors on a unified approach. In this situation I have endeavoured to strike a fair balance.
The Celtic Sea fishery, which is primarily a roe fishery at present, the best roe in the world, can be divided into two distinct elements from a spawning viewpoint, one, the western half — Dingle to Cork Harbour, roughly — is an autumn fishery where the roe is suitable for commercial exploitation in the October to December period and, two, the eastern half — Cork Harbour to Dunmore East — is a winter/spring fishery where the roe is suitable for commercial exploitation in the post-December period. Over-exploitation of either sector could have a very serious detrimental effect on the fishery and could lead to a decline or even a collapse of the fishery. This could then be followed by a long period of closure to allow the fishery to recover. I am sure nobody wants this but we had such a closure for five years for the period 1977-82 which resulted from over-fishing.
I am informed that the fishery was very successful, with good quality fish and roe, good prices, good income for the boats and good management. The total landed value of the spring fishery was around £1 million or an average of £13,000 approximately per boat. My objective is to allocate the available quotas as evenly as possible over the main spawning seasons. With a view to maximising income and employment both for the fishermen and the processors.
I want to add a word of compliment to our own scientists. Due to the research they did, we succeeded in driving the quota up to 12,950 tonnes at the council meeting, despite the fact that the Commission had scientific evidence for a much lower quota. Thank you, A Cheann Comhairle.
May I just sasy that the problem was——