The EU has given Norway permission to catch four times more blue whiting in Irish waters than Irish fishermen and women are allowed.<\/p>\n
Under the deal, Norwegian fishers can catch 224,000 metric tonnes of blue whiting in Irish waters this year \u2014 an increase of 110,000 metric tonnes on how much they were allowed to catch last year.<\/p>\n
In contrast, Irish fishermen and women are only allowed to catch 52,000 metric tonnes of blue whiting, up from the 28,000 tonnes they could catch last year.<\/p>\n
In return for allowing Norway greater access to Irish waters, Ireland has also been allowed by the EU to catch just over 258 metric tonnes of arctic cod and 2,640 metric tonnes of Atlanto-Scandia herring in Norwegian waters.<\/p>\n
Norway, which already had limited access to Irish waters, wanted better access so it could catch more blue whiting<\/p>\n
The value of blue whiting fish stocks in Irish waters, where they are of better quality and more plentiful, is estimated to be between \u20ac160m and \u20ac200m.<\/p>\n
That figure is set to increase this year because stocks of blue whiting have increased substantially, largely due to successful fish conservation measures.<\/p>\n
While unhappy with the lack of quota parity between the two countries,\u00a0fishing\u00a0representatives here say the deal has an upside to it.<\/p>\n
It stops short of allowing Norway the almost unlimited access to Irish waters it was seeking since protracted negotiations on EU-wide fishing quotas started last year.<\/p>\n
Irish fishing bodies feared a fear a deal could be struck by the EU \u2014 despite Irish objections \u2014 to allow EU member states greater access to Norway\u2019s cod stocks in return.<\/p>\n
Irish Fish Producers Organisation chief executive Aodh O’Donnell said: \u201cNorway, a non-EU member, secured more out of the deal than Ireland.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you do the sums, you can see they can catch more than four times more blue whiting in Irish waters than we can.<\/p>\n
However, Mr O’Donnell said the industry counted it as “a win” because the EU refused to grant Norway\u2019s demand for almost unlimited access to Irish waters.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was due to intense joint lobbying efforts with other fishing organisations,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur industry united as never before to make our voice heard and we are proud of what we achieved together.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe feel there has been a discernible shift in attitude at both Department of the Marine and EU level towards our fishing industry.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brendan Byrne of the Irish Fish Processors and Exporters Association said\u00a0Brexit\u00a0was part of the problem leading to this latest deal.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter Brexit, Norway was excluded from UK waters,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat displacement brought them into Irish waters to fish their blue whiting quota.<\/p>\n
\u201cIreland had already donated 40% of the EU\u2019s quota allocation to the UK so were already the biggest losers post-Brexit.<\/p>\n
\u201cNorway\u2019s increased fishing off our coast thus exacerbated an already grave situation.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cThe Irish Government and the EU have taken too much from Ireland for too long in fishing, so that others can benefit.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis has led to the total decline of our industry, while countries like Norway see massive growth in their seafood sector.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":3,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[177],"tags":[2035,2015],"region":[1916],"source":[2505],"country":[1981],"state":[],"city":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newss\/101601"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newss"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/newss"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newss\/101601\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":101602,"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newss\/101601\/revisions\/101602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101601"},{"taxonomy":"region","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/region?post=101601"},{"taxonomy":"source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/source?post=101601"},{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=101601"},{"taxonomy":"state","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/state?post=101601"},{"taxonomy":"city","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/city?post=101601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}