Inshore Fishermans Meeting Hailed a Success

Speakers at the DIMRO fishermens meeting L-R, Seamus Bonner,
Jerry Early, Dr Easkey Britton, Jerry Percy and John Walsh

A meeting of Irelands island based inshore fishermen has been hailed as a great success by its organisers DIMRO. The day long event which was called by DIMRO – Donegal Islands Marine Resource Organisation – was held in the Maldron hotel, Galway, last Monday 16^th June and seen a gathering of fishermen and community representatives from island fishing communities dotted around the Irish coast. Some of the islands represented included islands off the coast of counties Donegal, Mayo, Galway and Cork.

DIMRO, which was formed out of a collection of Donegal fishermen who had been fighting for the rights of island inshore fishermen since the imposition of bans in 2006, has a growing support base now in the island fishing communities of Donegal and in recent years its core members have proved to be a strong voice for the rights of fishermen not only nationally but at a European level also. From their work the Irish Government has now moved more towards a recognition of the need to engage more with representative bodies on the ground such as DIMRO to aid and assist communities like the inshore fishing sector.

The morning period of Mondays meeting seen a closed session of the fishermen and their community representatives at which there was wide ranging discussion of the current situation within the sector, the various hardships being felt by those of the islands inshore fishing industry and possible ways forward to improve both conditions and sustainability. In that session it was decided that there should be further groups formed and built on the model of of DIMRO to represent the island regions of Mayo, Galway and Cork and that a national body on island fishermen would also be formed for the regional groups to feed into. The national group in turn would then exist to represent all offshore islands at meetings with the likes of government officials and bodies both nationally and internationally.

The afternoon session chaired by John Walsh of Bere Island and which was also attended by BIM - the Irish Sea Fisheries Board - and the media consisted of of two guest speakers, Dr Easkey Britton and Jerry Percy of NUTFA followed then by a questions and answers session.

Dr Britton, a research associate with the campaign group Too Big To Ignore, The Global Partnership for Small Scale Fisheries Research, first gave a very well presented talk on the current issues within the small scale fishing sector and how to identify and move forward with opportunities that might exist for island fishing communities. Speaking of Irish inshore fishing Dr Britton said there were over 1800 small scale fishing vessels in Ireland being under 12metre in length and said “Everyone should remember that behind every boat is a family”. She explained the importance of the fishing sector to their larger communities and the knock on effect their growth or demise can have on those communities. She also spoke of how inshore fishermen have not had a voice due to discussions about the sector only ever being held between government bodies and others and not with the fishermen themselves saying that if this changed it could bring huge improvements in the sector.

Jerry Percy of NUTFA – the New Under Tens Fishermens Association – which represents the small scale fishermen in England and Wales then addressed the meeting to speak of ways forward for the islands inshore sector in Ireland and spoke of how NUTFA was formed and the successes they have been able to achieve to date. Mr Percy said it was vitally important for the sustainability of the industry that small fishing communities built alliances with groups such as DIMRO and NUTFA and also with other fisheries both locally, nationally and across the EU. He also recommended the continued interaction with scientists like Dr Easkey Britton and to also do what was possible to help inform and educate the wider public.

Speaking at the event Jerry Early of DIMRO said “Today is a landmark event for the islands inshore fishing industry and from today we have a great opportunity to move forward and now be recognised and taken seriously.

“A number of us have been fighting the case for our island fisheries for several years now especially in Donegal with the closing of Area 6a. On the back of an article published in the french paper Lamont seven European film crews visited Arranmore Island to report on its fishing community and they were astounded at how our own politicians and Europe had failed us by trying to systematically break down our industry and our community” the Arranmore man said.

Speaking of the days event he said “All coastal regions have to organise now. We have to be heard and its now or never given the opportunity we now have since the joint fisheries committee made the report recommending that the coastal island fisheries communities organise themselves and come to the table with exactly what it is we need to survive. And it's not just the island fishing communities that have to organise and pull together. The islands recognise that they are only one part of the sector and we'd call on all coastal communities to organise themselves as we have done so that we can all feed into the National Inshore Fisheries Forum.

“Today we will come away from this meeting with one strong voice and a mandate which will have the opportunity to help Irelands island fishing communities immensely and I would encourage all the islands to feed into the work done so far by DIMRO and form one collective voice. To date a lot of the work we have done we have had to fund out of out own pockets but it has been worth it to get to this point.

Concluding Mr Early said “Ultimately we are doing this for our future generations and for the survival of our communities. We will be taking a holistic approach to it covering everything from social, environment, economic and sustainability issues as our speakers mentioned and while we know it will be hard work we know it will be worth it in the end. To date the government has been putting a sticking plaster on a wound that needed stitching simply because they had no real understanding of our industry or our communities. But today we move forward and we will now have fishermen sitting at the tables that discuss and make decisions that impact on our communities. From today those impacts will now have a voice and presence ensuring those impacts are positive.”

The meeting closed with representatives appointed for each region to organise and engage with their own island fishing communities and another meeting will be held on July 16^th at which further plans will be made for the moving forward of a national representative body for the island inshore fishing sector.