Its absolutely shocking alright. One of our few natural resources and we give away our rights to it. I am sick of hearing about the Spanish vessels being detained in Irish waters illegally fishing because I know for each one caught, at least two probably get away with it.

more than 2 get away with it,I seen 4trawlers dragging for muscles in a exclusion zone which was ment to be recovering

In case the EU hasn’t noticed, we’re broke.
How about imposing new tarriffs on anyone entering our waters.
Between us and Norway we have it sown up.
And don’t tell me it can’t be done, deals change all the time in the eu.

Vinnie and Olaf, I think you’re mistaken, there hasn’t been that sort of activity for a few years now. Where did ye get your information – the 80’s?
Ireland exports most of its fish anyway, Irish aren’t big into seafood unless its cod or salmon.

I wouldn’t trust a fisherman much when it comes to conservation of sea stocks. Sea fishing has more in common with mining than it does farming in terms of their attitude towards the resource.

@tom I’m involved with the marine sector and my info is true yours sadly is misled..I have been watching the local fishermen come in with less and less..
the navy regularly detain illegal non Irish vessles

http://www.military.ie/search/?cx=002081102009708133800%3Aan3dx1jx62o&cof=FORID%3A11%3BNB%3A1&ie=UTF-8&q=fishing+vessel

Here ya go Tom, there are a fair few reports of foreign fishing vessels detained for illegal fishing in our waters. Irish people might not like fish very much anymore, but that shouldn’t mean it becomes the property of other nations.

Olaf: I checked that link, 6 detentions since July, 3 of them Irish vessels, 2 Spanish, 1 French: hardy a rape of our natural resources by foreign vessels.
Vinnie, if you really cared, why didn’t you report the illegal fishing vessels to the Navy or SFPA?

Until we march, this stuff will continue. Country is in the hands of idiots. I think we are foooked.

Perdu, its probably a little bit late replying now after so many hours but while there may have only been a couple detained since July. I was replying to someone else who said there hadn’t been any illegal fishing activity.

There are no figures for Ireland, but if you look at any reports for the icelandic or norwegian coast guard/navy, they acknowledge for every vessel they detain, several others get away with fishing illegally.

We have a severely underfunded navy that has just 8 ships, of which on average only four are actively patrolling, to protect an area of 652,000 square kilometres. We only have two aircraft capable of fisheries protection also. I can pretty much so guarantee you that vessels from other European nations are definitely illegally over fishing our stocks.

This is the same Minister who was lauded by the fishing industry for his negotiations which resulted in a good deal. Stop trying to be negative about everything .Let him do his job and then comment. It would be worth keeping a record of all these comments and publishing them when the negotiations are complete.

The one advantage the Norwegians have though is that they make their own decisions about how to manage their own fishing stocks. We gave away our right to do that,

Send that comment to the Spanish and the French who’s trawlers come into Irish waters break the law fish for what they want ram and intimidate smaller Irish vessels and steam home scott free because the Irish navy are too busy searching 35foot Irish boats for everything they can think of.Raped again by the bigboys in Europe whilst blaming our own people go figure.

We’re not innocent either. The Atlantic Harverster and Atlantic Dawn were deemed too big to fish European waters, are quite a few EU supertrawlers, so steamed off to swallow African fish stocks, often driving local fishermen into designated conservation areas where they are then criminalised, or else destroying stocks so they take to piracy in desperation.

I’ve just watched another video of deportations, this time in Netherlands of non-EU refugees. Our capitalists can pillage at will, border-immune. When they come here to try to feed their families they are spat upon. Meantime 100,000 Irish are vacating each year. How many ways do you want it?

..and meantime, inshore, the same resource wars of the 21st century..build their big beachhead

http://www.globalresearch.ca/america-invades-africa-the-resource-war-and-the-invasion-of-mali/5315477

Damo if Irish waters were not being ravaged by Foreign vessels then the aul paddy could work away out of his own patch.Irish supertrawlers see what’s happening to them and decide he if that’s happening to us and its ok we will just do it to someone else i.e Africa which is totally wrong i accept that.But you have to trace it back to the people who start the whole mess in the first place and its Spanish & French trawlers illegally fishing in the ever restricted Irish fishing grounds that previous Government sold for a price of a road from Limeick to Dublin.Great deal for us.

Jack, I’m aware of that end(I’ve done a bit of fishing off the west coast meself; 25 years back half the haul on the Porcupine Bank was just rubbish, and I mean garbage).
But its too late for unionist-style flagfights.
The seas are acidifying from carbon-soak, stocks are collapsing and the industrialised fishing is racing down the food chain as top stocks vanish. Meantime mangrove and coral nurseries are poisoned and bleached into sterility and everyone wants more carcinogenic ‘growth’ from the depleting resource bank. There is an island of plastic in the Pacific twice the size of Texas and as it degrades and breaks up it mimics microplankton causing further genetic toxic effect. From turtles to albatross, the casualties mount. As global warming effects currents and temperatures with stock-effects the supertrawlers are tailgating the oil and mineral vultures into the Arctic to further compound the gathering megastorm. Since at least Rachel Carson’s ‘Silent Spring’(1962) scientists have been trying to break the PR shell(with or without capital)of silence and disinformation.

Time to burn all the fracking flags and get terrestrian.

Corporate nationalisms are the PR-velvet-gloved fascistic problem. Economics remains ‘war by other means’.

We are the thickest nation in Europe with out a doubt .

He did pretty well at the last set of council negotiations, according to the fisheries groups. Maybe your ingrained bias is clouding your judgement?