Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 14 February 2017
579. Deputy John Brassil asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine further to Parliamentary Question No. 300 of 1 February 2017, if he will place a temporary ban on pair trawler fishing within Irish coastal waters until the report by the Marine Institute publishes its conclusions (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7158/17]
Amharc ar fhreagra580. Deputy John Brassil asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine further to Parliamentary Question No. 300 of 1 February 2017, his plans to commission a report to investigate the impact of pair trawler fishing on fish species, birds and mammals in inshore coastal waters and bays (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7159/17]
Amharc ar fhreagraI propose to take Questions Nos. 579 and 580 together.
Further to my answer to parliamentary question number 300 of 1 February 2017, there are currently no plans in place to implement a ban on pair trawler fishing within Irish coastal waters. I am advised that this practice in inshore waters and estuaries around Ireland is confined to fishing for sprat, which is not subject to fishing quotas or Total Allowable Catches established under EU regulation.
Officials in my Department are in close contact with the Marine Institute in relation to the matters you have raised and they have advised me that no additional information, to that already furnished, is available on the work being undertaken by the Marine Institute on sprat stocks. The three-year collaborative project between the Marine Institute and Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology to develop a detailed understanding of the stock structure of sprat around Ireland is ongoing.
Through the Birds and Habitats Directive, among other instruments, Ireland is committed to ensuring the conservation of biodiversity of the sea birds and mammals around our coast. Regarding fish by-catch, I am advised that there is some herring by-catch and possibly some other species in sprat fisheries but then by-catch is a feature of a number of the fisheries around our coast. All catches of quota species are logged and landed and taken in to account by ICES (International Council for the Exploration of the Sea) when providing stock advice.
As mentioned in my previous reply, the Marine Institute are working on adding sprat to the species covered under the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund Marine Biodiversity Scheme in 2017. This would allow for more intensive data collection to enhance scientific knowledge and underpin any future management actions for the stock. In this regard, I have asked the Marine Institute to work in conjunction with the National Parks and Wildlife Service to consider how we can improve our knowledge, through observer programmes, of the possible impacts of these fisheries on by-catch of other fish, sea birds and mammals.
