Shellfish Boats along Meath Coast

Thu Dec 14, 2017 4:24 pm

Today I counted 19 shellfish boats dredging (scouring) the seabed between Clougherhead and Gormanstown. How can the be sustainable? The fishing along this coastline is erratic enough without this kind of pillaging. I'm seeing more and more boats every year and some are operating incredibly close to the shoreline.
I'm looking for opinions on this.

Re: Shellfish Boats along Meath Coast

Sun Dec 17, 2017 11:40 pm

They are making good money at it at the moment so won't be stopped any time soon.the commercial fisheries are more important to this short sighted clueless government ,we've already lost most of our tourist anglers,and yet another thing that the delinquent kids could do in the evenings isn't there anymore.our once famous" fishermans paradise" name is on the way to being a memory

Re: Shellfish Boats along Meath Coast

Sun Dec 31, 2017 5:39 pm

our once famous" fishermans paradise" name is on the way to being a memory


As we enter 2018 the above quote accurately sums up Ireland's sea fisheries management programme, both offshore and coastal, exemplified by the current fisheries Minister Creed who took great credit in opening up the Irish Sea for cod post the annual end of year 2017 Brussels auction, while at the same time scientists employed by the Marine Institute are trying to piece together a picture of food webs in the Irish Sea to figure out why Irish Sea cod stocks are not making a comeback due to "supposed" protective measures.

I have written and campaigned on this subject for 10 years and the graph inexorably still is going downwards.

My grandchildren, of which I have three, will never see or experience the coastal bounty that I saw along the north Wicklow coastline up to the early 1980's -http://www.anirishanglersworld.com/index.php/media/an-anglers-tale/.

Sadly based on 10 years experience of trying to put forward an alternative message as to how Ireland manages her fisheries resources, both sea and freshwater, I can say with objective clarity that its decision makers are not listening.

Some student of economics needs to conduct a phd study on the opportunity cost to the state of mining our sea fisheries resource into oblivion using a baseline year of 1950 and include a full stakeholder brief that takes into account tourism and coastal artisan fisher inputs/outputs and not just narrow commercial fishing interests.

Re: Shellfish Boats along Meath Coast

Sun Dec 31, 2017 10:03 pm

Hi John, yes its frightening how many shellfish boats are dredging (scouring) the seabed along the east coat. A while ago i rang the fisheries board and got passed around until i eventually was talking to one of the fisheries inspectors for Ireland. He told me there were only three inspectors 'nation wide' that actually inspect the catches of these dredgers and at present there are licences for 88 such boats along the east coast with more licences to be allocated in 2018. We can all see where this going and its up to the minister for the environment to stop the inevitable collapse of ALL the Irish fish stocks in all Irish waters. Can he do it and is there a will do do it on his part ??????????? My confidence in our government and the minister for the environment is gone, they all bow to Europe................. the so called Emerald isle is a diapering. Very very sad.

Re: Shellfish Boats along Meath Coast

Mon Jan 01, 2018 3:00 pm

And its very much the same on land, we have the emerald eye image of our agriculture, but bit by bit its all turning into a green desert

Re: Shellfish Boats along Meath Coast

Mon Jan 01, 2018 3:27 pm

Johnboy wrote:I'm looking for opinions on this.

It's disgusting. If they are all dredging then it's shocking.

Re: Shellfish Boats along Meath Coast

Mon Jan 01, 2018 3:42 pm

Hi chuckaroo I have been trying to see if it is possible to lodge an objection to anyone applying for a shellfish licence but so far no headway and no advice on how to do it there is an objection system for every type of licence not easy but you can complain to have it stopped maybe someone on here reading this might know how to go about and if they do please let us all know so we can make our own objection to not allow the licence
mickser