Tag Archives: Killybegs Fishermen’s Organisation
Killybegs Looking for Alternatives to Diesel for Fishing Boats
On-going efforts by fishermen to reduce their environmental impact, increase their efficiency and contribute to scientific data collection are continuing to enhance the sustainability credentials of seafood, Killybegs Fishermen’s Organisation has claimed. The major Donegal-based fishing group is also looking for “ways and means of weaning the vessels off diesel.” “While the fishing industry sometimes struggles to get the recognition it deserves for its importance to the Irish economy or as producers of highly nutritious low impact food, this is proof positive of the sustained work which KFO members are investing into long-term sustainability,” the Organisation’s Chief Scientific and Sustainability Officer, Dr Edward Farrell, has said. >>click to read<< 08:26
Fears Brexit will cause 1,200 job losses in Irish mackerel sector
Ireland’s mackerel sector will lose more than 1,200 jobs by 2030 because of Brexit, according to fishing industry representatives. The economic cost to the industry in lost revenue and impact on the local economy is also estimated to be more than €800m. This is according to an analysis of the impact of Brexit on the sector which predominantly centres around mackerel, blue whiting, and herring catches. In three years, from 2021 to the end of 2023, pelagic fishers will, for example, have lost a total of 37,508 tonnes of their mackerel quota, the amount the EU says they can catch. >click to read< 20:20
Fleet reduction is a signal that local economies will be hit hard
“It is appalling that we have the best, most-productive fishing waters in Europe, but the government has again failed the Irish fishing industry. Other member states in the EU have been given the biggest catching rights in Irish waters and the Government has failed to achieve this. Boats are leaving the industry because owners say they cannot continue to make a living from fishing, which has suffered repeated blows. Industry organisations have been warning for months that the crisis it faced was not being adequately responded to by government. Now what they have warned about is happening. >click to read< 08:07
KFO to Highlight Litany of Festering Problems Facing the Fishing Sector
Morale in the Irish fishing industry is at an all-time low as rocketing fuel costs, shrinking quotas and the lingering legacy of Brexit are all proving extremely problematic. This will be the message brought to an Oireachtas Committee later today by the Killybegs Fishermen’s Organisation. KFO Chief Executive, Seán O’Donoghue, said the challenges facing the sector are manifold. And, although complex, his members have presented and agreed solutions to all of the key issues which are realistic, credible and based on scientific evidence. >click to read< 15:46
Fishermen Unable to Sustain Rocketing Fuel Costs
The Killybegs Fishermen’s Organisation (KFO) has called for immediate political action to alleviate the soaring cost of fuel which has many fishermen on the brink and is causing untold hardship and anxiety for the industry. Chief Executive, Seán O’Donoghue said that the Irish Government has been given approval for such a support scheme for the sector, which is already in place in many other EU member states. Governments in those countries have acted swiftly to provide a beleaguered industry with financial support to offset the huge spike in fuel costs. >click to read< 13:14
Brussels approves plan to fund scrappage of trawlers
The European Commission’s plan to encourage some Irish trawler owners to scrap their fishing vessels has been described as “a necessary evil” by Irish fishing organisations. The commission has approved a €80 million Irish scheme that would help owners badly affected by the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union to quit the industry. In order to qualify for the grant, which will be calculated on the gross tonnage of the fishing vessel, owners will not only have to stop fishing, but also to surrender their licence and scrap their boats. Some of the grants will have to shared with trawler crews, and crews will also be able to claim some tax reliefs. >click to read< 07:29
Scrapping fishing boats will ‘destroy industry and communities’
The State’s smaller fishing trawlers and the communities depending on them will become part of folklore under the Government’s plans to scrap some of the fleet, the Oireachtas has been warned. Under the plan from Minister for Agriculture and the Marine Charlie McConalogue, backed by European Union funds, 60 small and medium-sized trawlers would be permanently decommissioned. “We will see the complete destruction of our fishing industry resulting from [this], as it is requires the wiping out of a third of the 180 vessels operating in Ireland’s offshore demersal/whitefish fleet, leading to the ultimate destruction of our Irish demersal fishing fleet,” >click to read< 22:38
EU is getting tangled in a net of its own making with Killybegs row
Whatever else is happening in the fishing port of Killybegs, Co Donegal, openness and transparency is not part of the playbook. Killybegs may be a long way from Dublin, or Brussels for that matter, and fishing may be Ireland’s forgotten industry, but rules of fairness and justice should still apply. A huge row over the weighing of fish is threatening to make unviable an industry that is already facing huge challenges. On one side is the EU. In 2018 it identified what it claims were serious deficiencies in the Irish fisheries control system. >click to read< 22::30
High Court rules SFPA breached law withholding approval of new industry owned and operated conveyor/fish-weighing system
The Sea Fisheries Protection Authority had argued it had not refused, but rather “deferred”, approval for the weighing system, known as a flowscales, last December after the European Commission informed it the use of an industry-owned, operated and maintained weighing system would not be appropriate and the system must be owned, operated and used by a public body. In a judgment, Mr Justice Garrett Simons said there was no legal basis for the “ownership” concerns raised by the Commission about the system and it was significant the Authority had not sought to argue otherwise in the proceedings. >click to read< 12:48
Boris Johnson’s Brexit Deal Under Fire From British Fishermen, More
Boris Johnson’s Brexit negotiations are being heavily criticised by UK fishermen who are faced with the possibility of going out of business, thanks to the terms of the Brexit fishing deal,,, >click to read<
Fishermen brand Brexit trade deal a ‘betrayal’ – new year may not bring the hoped for Brexit bounty for Scottish fishermen as industry leaders 
express their misgivings. >click to read<
EU crumbles as Irish fishermen turn on allies. ‘Macron got what HE wanted!’ – Irish fishermen have turned on their European allies over their English Channel access and quota allowances, arguing France got what they demanded in the post-Brexit trade deal with the UK. >click to read< 17:00
Fishing Rights: Irish fishing group will fight ‘tooth and nail’ against UK quota move
The head of an Irish fishing group has said they will fight “tooth and nail” a move by the UK government to double the catch quota for British fishermen post Brexit. Killybegs Fishermen’s Organisation CEO Sean O’Donoghue described the move as “off the wall stuff” and said it will never be accepted by either the EU or Irish government. Fishing rights have become an integral issue of the UK’s Brexit negotiations, with Boris Johnson’s government seeking to have a huge rise in the quota of British vessels in their waters. >click to read< 14:51
New penalty points system – Fishermen say there is no right to challenge the points for breaches of rules
The chief executive of Killybegs Fishermen’s Organisation, Séan O’Donoghue has said that fishermen are not being afforded the same rights as other citizens under the new penalty points system introduced at the weekend. Mr O’Donoghue said that the fishing industry was not opposed to the system of penalty points to target breaches of fisheries rules but they were concerned that there was no right to challenge the points.,, The reaction from the fishing industry all around the country had been huge, said Mr Donoghue. “We can’t understand how the Taoiseach signed this statutory instrument.” >click to read< 10:21
‘Leave the diplomats out’ and put fishermen in charge of Brexit talks
As the UK and EU teams begin their final round of negotiations this week, Pascal Lamy called for “the politics and legal complexities” to be taken out of the fisheries talks, which are at an impasse. The UK team has accused the EU of not “accepting the reality” that Britain will be an independent coastal state at the end of the year, while the EU’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, has rejected UK proposals for annual negotiations on quotas, saying EU fishermen needed “predictability” in the form of continued “status quo” access to UK fishing grounds after Brexit. >click to read< 10:27
Irish fishermen warn of violent clashes with UK boats ‘Give us an agreement! – Irish fishing chiefs have warned of violent clashes with British boats if the European Union fails to reach an agreement for continued access to UK’s fishing waters. Killybegs Fishermen’s Organisation has claimed the industry would be plagued by thousands of job loses if Irish boats are locked out of the UK’s fishing grounds. >click to read< 10:35
Fishermen warn of ‘mayhem’ on seas in event of no-deal Brexit, concerns of conflict between trawlers from different countries
Fisherman Michael Cavanagh has no doubts about the potential for violence on the high seas in the event of a no-deal Brexit at the end of the month. The Greencastle-based skipper says that just after the initial March 29th deadline passed, an Irish crew fishing for crab off Scotland got a nasty shock, even though there had been an extension. “They went to haul their pots, but 400 of them had already been hauled and the eye (which crabs crawl through) had been cut out of all the pots. And it wasn’t Boris Johnson who did it.” >click to read< 16:14
Obituary: Joey Murrin – Voice of Irish fishing industry for more than 40 years
Joey Murrin, who has died in his home port of Killybegs, Co Donegal, at the age of 81, was a leading fish industry lobbyist and natural communicator with a unique ability to simplify the most complex issues. A consummate negotiator, he dealt with 15 government ministers during his career, and was feared by several; even former taoiseach Charles J Haughey once expressing irritation at his popularity. Born in Killybegs the youngest of four children, he began his career at sea in 1954 as a deckhand, fishing on the San Paulin owned by Tommy Watson. >click to read< 11:24
UK fishermen see Brexit bonanza, but there’s a catch
Newlyn – For the fishermen of this small port on the toe of England, Britain’s vote to leave the European Union was an answer to their prayers. After 45 years chafing under what they saw as unfair quotas in one of the world’s richest fishing grounds, the UK government would finally, in the lexicon of Brexiteers, “take back control” of British waters. But what Brexit gives with one hand, it can also take away. European fishermen want Brussels to use its trump card – continued access to the essential EU market – in negotiations on how to divvy up the seas. click here to read the story 12:15
Why Irish fishers are right to be worried about the UK taking back control of its waters
Many warning alarms have already been raised over Brexit, but Irish fishers may suffer the most substantial blow yet in the fallout from the UK leaving the EU. Earlier this year, the Killybegs Fishermen’s Organisation flagged that Ireland will be denied hundreds of thousands of tonnes of its annual haul post-Brexit. The group’s point was a simple one. When Britain leaves the EU, Irish fishers will be barred from entering British waters they previously enjoying lucrative rights to access. British secretary of state Michael Gove confirmed Irish fishers’ worst fears recently when he said: “We are taking back control. We can decide the terms of access.” One lawyer, Dermot Conway, who specialises in maritime regulations, was straightforward in his assessment of the situation – Irish fishers should be very worried. click here to read the story 21:17
Tributes paid on death of pioneering mackerel skipper and fishing industry leader
Martin Howley was known from ‘north Norway to China’. Tributes have been paid to pioneering mackerel skipper, Donegal-based businessman and fishing industry leader Martin Howley who has died after a short illness. Mr Howley (63) was joint owner of one of the largest Irish mackerel vessels, the Atlantic Challenge, and served a number of terms over 18 years as chairman of the Killybegs Fishermen’s Organisation (KFO). After he came ashore, he became involved with leading netmaking factory Swan Net Gundry in Killybegs, and was a consultant on fishing techniques in several countries, including Chile, Peru, Iran, Namibia and Alaska. Read the rest here 14:08
