The Klondyke days are over for the supertrawlers of Killybegs. Just 18 months after its delivery from a Norwegian shipyard, one of Ireland's largest fishing vessels, the Atlantic Challenge, is for sale.A serious bid for the £10 million 70-metre ship is already being negotiated by the owners, Mr Martin Howley, chairman of the Killybegs Fisherman's Organisation (KFO) and Mr Seamus Tully of Killybegs Fishing Enterprises. If sold, three to four vessels in the £100 million mackerel fleet may follow, as some of Europe's leading fishermen reconsider their options.
Downsizing, rather than quitting, is how Mr Howley views the future - even though some of his colleagues may think otherwise. The fleet flagship and £25 million freezer trawler, Veronica, is still fishing, three years after its fanfare arrival when hundreds queued on the quay to view it. Mr Eamonn McHugh, brother of the Veronica owner from Bullsmouth, Achill Island, recently took delivery of a £10 million craft, the Antarctic, and another supership is due later this year.
Yet anxious eyes are on Howley's movements, as one of the most energetic and enlightened entrepreneurs in the Donegal port and a man who has taught Alaskans how to work Killybegs-made fishing gear.
What concerns Howley most is that particularly dirty brand of politics associated with the EU Common Fisheries Policy (CFP). The perceived inequity of it is reflected in vice-like controls on Irish mackerel landings while other European fleets expand; and in an unsatisfactory Irish share this year of the new quota species, horse mackerel or scad.
"Mafia-style tactics" is how Mr Joey Murrin, KFO chief executive, described the deal, which was struck to clear Dutch advantage in Brussels in late December. Most of the European scad stock is in Irish waters, and the Irish pelagic (midwater) fleet had built up a record which should have been rewarded by a very favourable quota.
"When the EU Common Fisheries Policy was agreed in 1983, our record was poor on most of the species subject to quotas," Mr Murrin points out. "This represented a golden opportunity for us to get things right."
Murrin's men need a secure alternative to mackerel, which is no longer the goldmine it once was for some of the most ambitious skippers on this coastline. This year's mackerel quota was better than anticipated and prices are good at up to £1,500 a tonne for quality 600 gram fish on the Japanese market. However, a change in fish movements is one of the main reasons for increased uncertainty - a change more influenced by El Nino than the EU.
"We've had it good for more years than we anticipated. But now our boats are just too big," Mr Howley says. Mr Howley, who began fishing 27 years ago, is talking about the leviathans in the tank boat fleet, so-called because of the ability to store fish in tanks. At peak, the bigger vessels can handle up to 500 tonnes of mackerel in one trawl of a £150,000 net, which is enough fish to feed half the population of Ireland in one shot.
However, the tendency of North Sea shoals to stay up in the Norwegian zone has shortened the season for EU vessels which share the stock with the Norsemen. Emphasis on quality in larger fish has increased discards of the smaller fish, principally by the Dutch, and this may have long-term effects on the stock. And a separate coastal mackerel stock is being netted by more efficient medium-sized Irish vessels.
Mr John Molloy, the Marine Institute's leading scientific expert on the pelagic fishery, is not quite sure why the migratory pattern has changed. Climatic factors would have an influence, he says.
The state of stock may be far better than originally predicted two years ago, when serious concern about its decline forced a radical cut in quotas. A European scientific survey, due to be carried out again this year, will give a better indication, he says - but he is also concerned about discards.
Increased EU surveillance has also put pressure on the Killybegs fleet, and the European Commission intends to press ahead with a new system of days at sea to achieve a 28 per cent effort reduction over the next five years. "We don't object to controls if they are evenly spread," Mr Howley says. But he doesn't think they are.
He now believes an EU Commission investigation into recorded catches of mackerel by Ireland was instigated last year as part of a long-term Dutch strategy. This strategy was designed to spoil this State's chances in the 1997 horse mackerel/scad quota negotiations, he contends.
This suspicion is echoed by the Minister for the Marine and Natural Resources, Dr Woods, who found himself out-manoeuvred in the all-night Brussels negotiations a month ago. The all-night annual quota talks are deliberately designed to run into the small hours, to force through a deal. Dr Woods has confirmed that the threatened EU investigation into Irish mackerel catches was dropped, as a condition of accepting the scad deal on offer. However, he is considering legal options on foot of what he regards as a scandalous deal.
Mr Howley has discounted suggestions that he intends to quit fishing altogether, though he now spends more time ashore on vessel management and as a director of the Killybegs firm, Swan Net.
The Atlantic Challenge carries valuable capacity, at 1,900 tonnes. He says he is considering a smaller pelagic vessel which is "more appropriate to our quotas". Naturally, a package of grants and tax incentives promised by the Minister for the Marine within the next month, as part of a strategy to renew the ageing whitefish fleet, will be studied with interest by members of the KFO.
"You know, we have so much expertise, energy, enthusiasm and yet we don't have the political will behind us to take full advantage of what's out there," Mr Howley says. While Ireland abides by EU restrictions on fleet size and fishing effort, Holland and Britain have been gearing up their pelagic fleets, he points out.
"When a multinational like Packard coughs, the whole Government is out making statements. Yet this indigenous industry is the Packard, and more, of the north-west."
Dutch business interests have already been busy empire building within the EU. They have seized control of German and French pelagic tonnage, and have been availing of third country fishing agreements (that is, fishing rights in non-EU waters) paid for by the EU.
The Dutch have also secured an agreement with Spain to catch 20,000 tonnes of their share of horse mackerel, in return for handsome orders in Spanish shipyards. Spain is not particularly interested in horse mackerel, being far more concerned with hake and other whitefish species off Irish waters.
There's more. Dutch freezer owners are building a cold store in Las Palmas to handle fish caught off Morocco and Mauretania. This dominance can only be achieved with political support, according to the Shetland Fishermen's Association - which is itself a major player on the European pelagic scene.
Mr Joey Murrin is less pessimistic than his chairman about the years ahead. "Of course we are upset about the horse mackerel/scad deal, but it is partly because Holland got such a big share. We still did better than Britain, and we could have been declaring a victory," he says.
"We've done well on the mackerel, it has been the lifeblood of south-west Donegal and prices have improved dramatically," Mr Murrin says. "It's a question of holding one's nerve now. This is not a time for jumping ship."
