‘Cheap US imports threatening local lobster industry’
EXPERT WORRIED ABOUT DISEASE THREAT
CHEAP AMERICAN and Canadian lobster imports are threatening the livelihoods of local fishermen and exposing native lobster to the risk of disease, according to Dingle-based marine expert Kevin Flannery.
“American and Canadian lobsters are now being brought live into the county and country, for sale in retail outlets and in restaurants,” Mr Flannery said. “They aren’t branded, they are just being sold off as lobsters and people don’t know the difference.”
He said local fishermen can’t afford to match the prices of the imports and this is putting at risk the livelihoods of up to 80 per cent of inshore fishermen who are dependent on lobster and crab fishing.
“You can buy these lobsters in America or Canada for $2 a pound (approximately €4 per kilo) because they are so plentiful. The price West Kerry fishermen can expect at the moment is approximately €11 a kilo. This price has remained the same for almost 15 years and prices are staying down, and in some cases collapsing, because of these cheaper imports,” he said.
Large numbers of live American and Canadian lobsters are being flown into France on a daily basis and, once inside the EU, they can be moved freely between member states.
“Six hundred tonnes of fish come through Runges Market in Paris every day. Then you have people from Ireland buying this imported live lobster for €5/ €6 a kilo at most. They are then being brought into Ireland and are being distributed to restaurants and shops all over the country from Dingle to Galway to Dublin,” he said.
He added that large numbers of lobster in America and Canada are infected with a disfiguring shell disease caused by bacteria and American lobsters are also prone to a bacterial blood disease called Gaffkaemia. While this is not harmful to humans, Mr Flannery fears it could prove devastating to indigenous lobster.
“This blood disease which could easily transfer to the Irish lobsters and create a major, major catastrophe,” he said.
Mr Flannery is calling on agencies such as the Marine Institute and the SFPA to take a serious look at the situation currently unfolding.
“The Marine Institute should check the disease status of the live imports and it should be up to the SFPA to check who’s importing them, who’s holding them and how are they being held. Are they being mixed with Irish lobsters, is the water from them going back into the wild, are they being labelled correctly... there are a huge numbers of issues.”
“The French, the Dutch and other EU member states use disease control as barrier to trade. If there is a disease threat, they clamp down. The same needs to happen here urgently. The Minister needs direct his agencies to take action before it is too late,” he said.
“The whole thing is scandalous, especially when you look at the safeguards implemented when it comes to agriculture. Imagine for a second if live pigs or other livestock, infected with a virus or disease, were being brought into the country; the animals would be destroyed and those doing it would face serious reprimands.”
Mr Flannery’s frustration is compounded by the fact that the lobster industry in West Kerry and in other coastal areas around the county is the last bastion of the local fishing industry.
“Lobster fishing grounds are inside our territorial waters – there are no other EU boats to contend with. Now we are undercutting it and undermining it by leaving in these Canadian and American lobsters and endangering our own stocks and species by exposing them to disease,” he said.
Mr Flannery recently bought an imported American lobster from a fish retailer in Cork, which has been lauded for its ‘ locally sourced Irish produce’. That lobster is now being kept in a tank in Dingle and it would prove difficult for a consumer to tell the import from the genuine Irish article.