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When Taoiseach Leo Varadkar was snapped exchanging a “high five” with New Zealand flyboarder Beau Weston from the deck of the State’s research ship Celtic Explorer in Galway at the weekend, “Seafest” organisers couldn’t conceal their delight.
Seized by the zeitgeist, the Taoiseach enthused about the economic potential of the marine, noting that the sea area we “control” is 10 times our land mass.
During the annual event, initiated four years ago by Mr Varadkar’s leadership rival Simon Coveney, much was made of opportunities in “blue biotechnology” – offshore renewables, seafood and tourism. An NUI Galway economic audit found that the “ocean” sector was small, at €1.8 billion or some 0.9 per cent of gross domestic product, but outperforming the general economy.
Price Waterhouse Cooper (PwC) economist of the sea Miguel Marques was similarly upbeat. He identified several potential opportunities, including rising demand for seafood protein as global population expands to nine billion. Ireland has "one of the best and cleanest shallow waters in Europe for fishing and aquaculture", he noted, while acknowledging Brexit posed "challenges".
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And these challenges are starting to come into focus. Over the weekend, Britain announced that in two years’ time it would withdraw from the London Fisheries Convention, which gives six states, including Ireland, the right to fish within 12 nautical miles of its coast, as part of a reciprocal deal.
The key concern for Ireland is the risk that, as Brexit approaches, Britain could seek to exclude EU boats from a much larger 200-mile exclusion zone around its coast. Irish vessels take some 34 per cent of catch off the British coast – up to 64 per cent in the case of mackerel, and 43 per cent in the case of prawns. At first sale value, it is estimated at about €120 million worth of fish.
Sharper focus
British environment secretary Michael Gove’s shot across the bows on Sunday puts the “challenges” into sharper focus. The 1964 European Fisheries Convention – known as the “London” convention – is a little-known piece of legislation which allowed the fleets of contiguous coastal states to have access to respective six to 12-mile limits.
It was absorbed in to the EU’s Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) of 1983, which dictates management of fish resources outside the 12-mile limit. Britain’s “Fishing for Leave” campaign believed it could still offer a “back door” to vessels from Ireland, Belgium, France, Germany and Netherlands within the six to 12-mile limit.
Hence the Gove announcement, billed as being good for the marine environment, has been welcomed by the campaign as a sign of Britain’s intent to withdraw from the EU CFP.
There’s some considerable sympathy within the sector here for the British stance – matched by considerable concern. Scottish, Northern Irish and Irish skippers tend to share a belief that the CFP was designed to suit German interests first, in ensuring that the focus was on providing plentiful protein at affordable prices.
To appease sensitive political interests in Spain, Germany ensured its ally had full access to biologically rich Irish waters on EU accession, after a 10-year “probation” period – when the “Irish Box” restricted activity off the Atlantic seaboard. As the policy evolved, it became more and more complex to implement, forcing smaller players off the water and prompting one French fisherman to note that European bureaucrats were trying to run it like “an aquarium plugged into a computer”.
The policy involves coastal states competing at December councils for catch shared out through quotas, but co-operating during the year on management of shared stocks like mackerel. The fast swimming migratory fish knows no borders as it moves between Norway, north of Scotland and the Irish west coast. Bilateral discussions between coastal states have been a regular feature – with Norway, which is not in the EU but in the European Economic Area, being a key participant.
Calm nerves
Minister for Marine Michael Creed has sought to calm nerves, appealing for unity within the Irish industry and stressing that Ireland’s best interests are served by working with the EU on negotiations with Britain. Mr Creed has also said he has EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier’s support for fish being dealt with as part of wider trade negotiations with Britain. Britain is a key market for Irish fish exports, and Britain relies on the European market in turn.
CEO of Killybegs Fishermen’s Organisation (KFO) Sean O’Donoghue, who represents the pelagic (mackerel/herring) sector, says he would “love to be talking to Britain directly about Brexit, as one of our closest allies” but points out that our treaty obligations don’t permit this.
The KFO has the support of other industry organisations, and is part of an EU Fisheries Alliance which involves larger players in coastal states. However, the Irish South and West Fish Producers’ Organisation believes Ireland cannot secure any reasonable arrangement in an alliance with other EU coastal states that have long competed for, and in many cases, held more quota, in these waters.
IS&WFPO chief executive Patrick Murphy talks to fishermen who have lived with competition on the whitefish grounds, and who have watched increased Spanish landings which are transhipped out at no added value from west Cork's Castletownbere.
He points out that Ireland, with 22 per cent of EU waters now and a small fraction of the catch, has to insist on a renegotiation of the CFP as part of Brexit if there is to be an equitable deal.
Northern Ireland fishermen’s representative Dick James, who has weathered many complex EU quota negotiations, agrees. He wonders how often politicians actually take out a chart. His members voted largely in favour of Brexit, but fear that their interests will not be taken into account by a Westminster government.
Whatever about how the rest works out, the fishing industry here is now worried about how best to protect Irish interests in the light of what has been described as the first serious shot from London on Brexit.