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.