asked the Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries if, in view of the fact that crawfish are merely being fished along the coast incidentally in conjunction with the fishing of lobster, he will provide through An Bord Iascaigh Mhara or his Department a boat large enough to fish crawfish as a specialist operation on an experimental basis to assess the potentialities.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Craw Fishing.
44.
It is not correct to say that crawfish are merely being fished along the coast incidentally in conjunction with the fishing of lobster. The value of the crawfish catch by Irish fishermen in 1970 at over £207,000 indicates that the fishery is being vigorously prosecuted. However, some fishermen use the same gear with the express intention of catching lobster and crawfish at the same time and the scientific officers of my Department are satisfied that this is not the best technique. They feel that the crawfish catch could be increased substantially if the use of specialised gear was more widespread and if more of the larger vessels using the specialised gear were to take part in the fishery. They also hold that it is not necessary to carry out experimental fishing to establish the validity of this view which has already been fully dealt with in a number of fishery leaflets issued by my Department on the subject.
Exploratory fishing designed to locate new stocks or to investigate the strength of stocks in particular areas is, however, always useful and for these purposes it is proposed later this year to carry out, with the aid of the Department's exploratory fishing vessel Cu na Mara, fishing for crawfish off Killala Bay. The location and timing of similar work elsewhere will depend on the requirements of the programme of research and exploratory work from time to time.