The film Atlantic is now being seen by heaps of people - the giving away of the once pristine waters off Ireland to Supertrawlers and fossil fuel speculators. It juxtaposes Newfoundland, Norway and Ireland. It shows a sorry state of affairs that Irish fishermen are relentlessly checked and fined and grounded while along the horizon only 1km out or so, supertrawlers sit, with nets as big as 2 football pitches and freezers on board. Atlantic interviews a previous worker on one who says they bring around 7,000 tons but they will have caught 12,000. The 5,000 missing tons? Smaller fish, thrown back dead.
Simon Coveney was asked why he had not negotiated more for Ireland? He responded, I was not even allowed in at the table. He was not at the meeting. Exchanged our enture ecosystem for subsidies for farmers.
Current situation is that the Margaris super trawler has turned off it's tracking device so that people can't follow where they are fishing. This is a common problem, the supertrawlers do not stay within the area for which they have license. Instead they are off up to Donegal and wherever they like. Even the Irish Lights won't approach them as the boats are 4 times the size of our biggest boats.
It is a free for all and soon we will have to map for ourselves the dead zones. There are twenty seven I think around the UK - which means no fish at all, no algae. Dead. Please bare in mind that every second breath you take relies on oxygen created by that algae so this is everyone's problem.
Everyone who can get it together write a letter to Michael Creed TD or whoever it is now in Food and Marine. Or even to Europe or the paper. I think it is a good moment to show that we care about what is happening and want to get involved to stop it. These are massive factory ships. They suck up and process 250 tonnes of fish a day, through a pipe. 'By products' of endangered dolphins, whales, sharks, rays and turtles are thrown back, dead. Ships can store over 6000 tonnes of fish frozen and send it off to a global market once in trucks from a port every few weeks.
These supertrawlers are banned from most waters, I am sure those countries would give us the evidence we need to bring a stop to their ecocide here. Surely!
Thousands of sea lion pups are dead as there are not enough fish in the sea.
Ban supertrawlers everywhere, here is a good place to start article
Supertrawler Margaris Spec and Behaviour in Australia four years ago!
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