Sinn Féin local election candidate calls for ban on oversize trawlers inside coastal zone

Sinn Féin local election candidate Rosaleen Lally has called for a ban on trawlers over 18 metres from trawling inside the six nautical mile zone from the coast.

Ms Lally, who is running in the three-seat Belmullet Local Electoral Area, said that ‘inequitable fishing quotas’ and rising fuel costs were putting many fishermen out of business.

“We in Sinn Féin recognise that the inshore fleet makes up the majority of those directly employed in the fishing sector, and without doubt they sustain coastal communities in a very significant way,” she stated.

She said that her party would provide special protections to the country’s inshore fishing fleet if elected to government.

The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine has opened a public consultation on trawling activities inside the six nautical miles and the baselines.

The public consultation offers four options for fisheries management inside the 6 nautical mile limit: business as usual; a ban on all pair trawling; a ban on all trawling by vessels over 15m in length; and a ban on trawling by vessels over 18m.

The closing date for submissions is April 12 at 1pm.

_{Sinn Féin local election candidate Rosaleen Lally} 

“This consultation is an opportunity to have your voice heard and to ensure that our inshore waters will be managed in a way which would conserve the stocks for whales, dolphins, fish and birds, and also give a welcome boost to the inshore fishing sector,” said Ms Lally.

“Sinn Féin supports the option preventing vessels over 18m from trawling inside the limit in order to maximise environmental benefit while balancing fairness to the fishing fleet.

“The industry (inshore and offshore) needs to work together on how this is operated and for a sustainable fishery for all inside and outside of the 6m limit, including a fair allocation of mackerel and herring quota to the inshore sector”.