There’s a living to be made fishing but facilities are poor
A GOOD living can be made from fishing in West Kerry’s inshore waters but local fishermen desperately need better facilities for landing catches and maintaining their boats, a fisheries development meeting in Dingle Marina Centre was told last Thursday night.
The public consultation meeting, held to help draw up a development strategy for the 2016 – 2023 phase of the South West Fisheries Local Action Group (FLAG) programme, heard that fishermen in the Maharees have to queue up to use the single power socket and the one water tap on the local pier. In Dingle the power supply is better but facilities for carrying out basic repair and maintenance of boats were described as ‘primitive’. There is just one slipway where fishermen can ‘dry’ their boats in order to carry out work, such as cleaning or painting, below the waterline. The slip can only take one boat at a time and, again, fishermen have to queue to use the facility.
The FLAG programme, which is coordinated by a local board and operates under the EU-sponsored Seafood Development Programme, is able to provide funding under various categories to tackles these kinds of problems and local fishermen attending the meeting in the Marine Centre suggested that some of this funding could be used to provide small cranes on Dingle pier. They said that while Spanish trawlers are well equipped for landing their catches, small local boats often aren’t able to winch their boxes of fish onto the pier but this problem could be solved by providing simple electric cranes that would cost no more than €20,000.
The meeting, which was organised into four discussion group with about five people in each, was also told that more young people might take up fishing as a career – even on a seasonal basis – if they knew how to get into it. Rochie Holohan from Ballydavid pointed out that while there is a very structured approach for young people going into agriculture, there is no equivalent in the fishing industry. It was suggested that this problem could be tackled by including presentations on career opportunities in the marine industry as a section of the secondary schools transition year programme.
People at the meeting also felt that fishermen who are already in the trade could benefit from education in fish handling, to maintain the quality of their catch, and in marketing so that they could get better prices for their fish.
BIM Inshore Fisheries Development Officer Dr Vera O’Donovan, who is based in Dingle, explained that the FLAG programme provides grant aid communities where traditional fishing practices have been affected by environmental and quota restrictions and the decline of fish stocks. Villages throughout West Kerry that have suffered from the ban on commercial salmon fishing would be one example of this.
She said the FLAG strategy for 2016 to 2023, which is worth €12 million nationally, is expected to be complete by November and she strongly encouraged people to apply for funding for suitable projects at that time.
What amounts to a suitable project appears to be open to interpretation but it includes the general area of maintaining and developing inshore fisheries. Last Thursday night’s meeting aimed to gather ideas for inclusion in the forthcoming FLAG strategy but people with specific projects can contact Vera on 066 9150909 to discuss whether they fit, or can be made fit, with the FLAG programme.