Fishing crisis: Confrontation looms as jobs on the line in industry’s battle for survival
Fish processors say losing this battle would be another nail in the coffin for the industry. Picture: Neil Michael
Some of the biggest fish processing companies in Ireland are set for a confrontation with the State fisheries watchdog in what they say is a fight for survival.
At stake are more than 500 jobs and the viability of the pelagic fishing fleet, which targets species such as herring and mackerel.
The associated fish-processing industry is under threat too and, combined with the fleet, they represent one of the largest sectors of the Irish fishing industry.
The entire industry suffered a 25% cut to its total fishing quotas — what the EU says each country can catch of each species — in a post-Brexit deal between Britain and the EU that largely benefitted bigger EU states ahead of Ireland.
As well as a cut in quota, more than 40 fishing vessels have since been decommissioned and destroyed, and the associated jobs lost.
The fish processors and their counterparts elsewhere in the industry say that if they lose this latest battle, it will be yet another nail in the coffin of the Irish fishing industry.
They also say that, despite Ireland having some of the most abundant fishing waters in the world, the country will also have to rely more on foreign imports of fish.
At the heart of this latest crisis is a catch-sampling system that records exactly how much of each species of fish is landed by pelagic fishermen in Ireland.
On one hand, the Sea Fisheries Protection Authority (SFPA) says the EU-approved system was brought in to uphold EU fishing rules and regulations. It says that while it does not actually sample or weigh fish, it does require the fish producers to furnish the SFPA with accurate figures and it is up to the industry to provide them.
If the samples are inaccurate, then — the watchdog says — the industry just needs to take more samples. It insists it is just doing its job.
However, some in the industry believe such close adherence to these EU regulations could regulate the Irish fishing industry out of existence. The SFPA rejects this claim.
For its part, the industry says that not only is the system unworkable and inaccurate, but that it already has a system in place that accurately records the weight and species content of catches and has done so for decades.
Those in the industry also say that while Ireland is the only country to use this system, successive court cases in Denmark have shown it to be an unreliable way of accurately recording the content of a catch.
They say the effect of the State’s system is that inaccurate figures are being officially recorded for the types of fish being landed in Ireland.
Added to that, because the industry believes the wrong figures are being recorded for the species caught against Ireland’s national quota, it is negatively impacting set quotas for some of those species.
Detailed records seen by the show that, since the new random weight and species sampling system was brought in last December, fishermen and processors now record two different sets of figures. One set is what processors say is derived from the SFPA’s random sampling system that regards samples taken as a “representative extrapolation of the entire catch”.
The system operates either on the pier on landing or — if the fish producer has a special SFPA permit — inside the fish factory after being transported there from the harbour.
It is this set of figures that a number of fish producers are filing alongside a statement that they are only being filed “under duress” or that they are “inaccurate” or “incomplete” because, they say, the SFPA sampling system does not produce an accurate representation of what is actually in the catch.
The second set of figures being filed to the SFPA is what processors say are the accurate figures based on a system that has operated for decades.
Issues with the SFPA random sampling system arise when pelagic fishermen land a mixed catch containing their target fish and what is known as their ‘by-catch’, made up of species they did not intend to catch. Mixed catches can account for around 70% of all catches.
However, when the by-catch is made up of a much smaller number of white fish than the SFPA system records, a disproportionate amount of white fish is being “unfairly” recorded as having been caught by pelagic fishermen.
Analysis of catch data by the industry and shown to the claims that 40% of by-catch sampling could be out by as much as 80%.
While the pelagic sector is predominantly based in Killybegs, Co Donegal, the white fish sector — which targets species such as cod, haddock, and hake — is based mainly in southern ports including Castletownbere and Union Hall in Co Cork and Dingle in Co Kerry.
“The fact that the species of fish being landed in Ireland is not being accurately recorded is a huge problem for the industry,” said Irish Fish Processors and Exporters Association general secretary Brendan Byrne.
“We have told the SFPA their system does not work, and we have told Department of Agriculture officials.
“Our members believe they are being forced to make illegal statements to comply with the SFPA’s current sampling system.
“We believe the system is illegal and wrong and we are calling for an independent review of what is going on to not only stop it but also find out why it is being allowed to carry on.
“It is important to realise that as well as the national quota being affected, it has an impact on the quota of other nations who want to land fish here.
“The SFPA will insist the variances are not significant and they will say there is no impact on quota but that is simply not true, which is why we are calling for an independent inquiry.”
Irish South and West Fish Producers Organisation CEO Patrick Murphy said: “The fact that the SFPA sampling system is crediting pelagic fishermen with catching far more white fish than they have is very worrying.
“Ports like Castletownbere, which predominantly rely on white fish quotas to survive, are already struggling but what is happening in Killybegs is affecting us in Cork.”
Irish Fish Producers’ Organisation CEO Aodh O’Donnell said the success of the Irish fishing industry is being “hindered by a flawed and misguided set of control protocols”.
Industry representatives say the impact of inaccurate recordings of a catch is one of the main reasons foreign vessels are choosing to avoid landing their catch in ports like Killybegs.
“We know from our own records that the income from foreign vessels has reduced considerably since this new sampling scheme came in,” Mr Byrne said. “Foreign skippers do not want inaccuracies recorded for their catches so that they could be fined.”
He estimates that, of the seven fish processing factories in Killybegs, there will only be about two left in three years’ time.
“Most of them are living off reserves and desperately struggling to survive,” he said.
Added to that, he estimates that, of the 40 or so trawlers in Killybegs, around 50% will probably be sold off in the next two to three years.
He also estimates that foreign vessels reducing the number of times they land in Killbegs harbour has cost the processors around €60m in lost revenue.
This is calculated by adding up the number of large landings each fish processor would normally expect to process from large foreign fishing vessels and comparing this year so far to the same period in 2022. They insist the losses are “huge”.
The SFPA was asked to comment on the claims by the fish processors, as was the Department of Agriculture.
“The SFPA was made aware that sampling to determine catch composition in bulk unsorted landings is a concern for some processors,” said a SFPA spokesperson.
“The SFPA has advised that where variances occur due to insufficient sample size, these should be notified in writing to the local SFPA port office and corrective action established by the operator to mitigate reoccurrence.
“Operators have absolute discretion to increase sampling beyond the minimum point to increase accuracy.”
On the issue of variances in figures based on the SFPA sampling system and that carried out by processing plants, the watchdog said: “Analysis of this variance data provided by industry operators has shown variances have been minor.”
The SFPA insisted there is “no evidence” that any variations impact on quota allocation, although the watchdog was not asked by the about the impact on quota allocation.
Mr Murphy said in reply to the SFPA statement: “Any suggestion that variances have been minor and that there is no evidence of an impact on quota is simply wrong. We absolutely reject that.
"Yes, the onus is, as they say, on the operator to accurately weigh and report the weight of fish. But the SFPA system is actually resulting in inaccurate reporting of landings and the fact that they can’t accept that shows just how deluded the SFPA is.”
A highly-critical European Commission audit in 2018 led to the SFPA setting up its current sampling system just under a year ago.
Before then, the main “target catch” was simply separated from the so-called “by-catch” — the fish not intentionally caught but which ended up in the nets — and placed in separate trays.
Declarations would then be made as to the weight of both the target catch and the weights of the various other species in the by-catch.
However, the 2018 audit of the way fish was weighed in Ireland ended up being highly critical not just of the Irish fishing industry but also of the SFPA.
The report highlighted lax regulatory controls and inadequate enforcement of European Commission fishing regulations.
The European Commission noted at the time of the audit that the SFPA was to seek approval for a sampling plan that would avoid the need to separate and weigh all species individually, and instead enable sample weighing.
Since then, a raft of controls and enforcement measures has been brought in, including complex CCTV camera systems that record every part of the fish processing process.
There are now so many CCTV cameras in fish processing plants that it is virtually impossible to avoid being filmed almost no matter where you are.
The film can be monitored in real-time by SFPA officials from their offices in Killybegs.
Previously they used to personally supervise the processing process, but that is now done remotely.
Added to the controls put in place since 2018, the SFPA in December 2022 brought in a system whereby random 25kg samples were to be taken from every 25 tonnes of fish.
The SFPA decreed that “the figure obtained from the sample shall be deemed to be a representative extrapolation of the entire catch and the weights applied accordingly to the entire catch”.
This means that if the random sample happened to include three haddock or two pilchards, or two blue whiting, then the weight of those fish is magnified as a percentage of the entire catch.
In reality, however, the amount of by-catch species caught can be much less.
The SFPA has said that if there are issues with its minimal sampling requirements, then the industry just needs to do more sampling.
However, those in the industry make the point that every time a sample is done it reduces the quality of the fish and the more samples they take, the more fish they have to either throw away or use as fish meal, which is not such a lucrative product.
On a 1200-tonne catch, a large amount of samples can lead to the catch being reduced considerably.
The fact that there is already a fishing industry system running that accurately records the species content and weight of the entire catch is something the industry says it finds very frustrating.
The SFPA describes itself as “the competent authority for the enforcement of sea fisheries law in Ireland” and is subject to European Commission audit in how it oversees the implementation of EU regulation.
It says that “failure to adequately fulfil this mandate can result in infringement proceedings and potential financial penalties against the State”.
It also adds that in fulfilling its mandate, the SFPA is committed to “protecting, sustaining, and enabling the Irish seafood sector”.
