Taken from The Southern Star published Saturday, September 19th, 1993

In terms of value of fish landed, Castletownbere is now the biggest fishing port in Ireland.

The value of fish landed into the port last year was over £20 million. Castletownbere Fishermen's Co-Op handles about £12 million worth of fish per year with the other local fish firm Fast Fish Ltd. handling another £8 million.

Eighty per cent of the fish landed are white fish.

The rest is made up mainly of herring, Last year the Co-Op sent 1,500 tons of herring fillets to Germany and 250 tons of roe to Japan.

The immediate plans that the Co-Op have are to expand the packing of white fish.

Their future aim is to pack and grade every white fish landed in the port.

A three month "training programme" costing £55,000, and grant aided by West Cork Leader Co-Op Society Ltd. is now going ahead with the training of twelve people in the skills of filleting and packaging of white fish in the Co-Op factory in Dinish under B.I.M. instructor Walter Sutcliffe from Ardglass, Co. Down, who has done similar work in England, Scotland, Spain, France and Norway.

It is envisaged that these twelve will become trainers themselves and so on under the staff concerned be raised to forty extra jobs by next Sept.

At present, the Co-Op employs up to 144 men and women at peak times with the minimum of about 40 in the summer months.

In the port of Castletownbere there are 350 crewmen employed at sea.

For the past few months, several of the larger vessels of the local fleet have been engaged in tuna fishing, this has meant that the vessels had to steam two to three days to the fishing grounds where fishing usually lasts for six to eight days before the two day trip back to port again.

The boats bring home an average of about 4,000 fish at about £8 per fish.

One boat landed about 7,000 and in a recent trip the Dawn Ross had a good catch, two of its catch of tuna weighed 67½ lb. each.

On landing the fish are transferred by hand and then repacked with ice for transport.

At present all tuna are exported round, their value could be increased substantially by processing locally.

The local boats are happy with the tuna fishing this year but they recognise that there is a lot to learn about this fishery.

The tuna like their relatives the mackerel, carry out huge seasonal migrations.

However, the migratory path of the tuna does not always oblige by passing predictably close to the Irish coast and fish are often caught 200 miles off-shore, again this year the location of the fish had too much of an element of luck involved.

Co-operation between the Castletownbere fleet engaged in the tuna fishing has been total.

All those involved know that without this co-operation, a boat could get into trouble with the huge Spanish fleet also fishing tuna in the same area.

Last week some of the Castletownbere boats were attacked by some of those Spanish vessels which tried to force them away from the fishing.

The Resplendent owned and skippered by Ted Harrington and the Girl Geraldine owned and skippered by Ger Minehane, had their gear cut by the Spaniards.

This conflict between the Irish and Spanish, which is ongoing for years in the white fish sector, now seems to have extended to the tuna fishing.

The Spanish, with their larger vessels threaten the smaller wooden boats, while they carry out their illegal fishing with small mesh nets and secret holds and determined to keep all fishing areas for themselves.

The skippers of Castletownbere boats claim that the Irish Naval Service is of no use to them out there unlike the French fishermen who always have a French Naval vessel close by where they fish.

Unlike the Spanish, the French are helpful, their naval vessel recently came to the help of one of the Castletownbere fleet which had a net caught in its propeller.

Two years ago, during a storm in September when 61 vessels of the Spanish tunny were seeking shelter from the gales, Castletownbere proved a safe port in the storm for the Spaniards.

Because of the local anger and resentment by the local fishermen about European fish quotas and with the villains of the piece seen as the Spanish, might seem as provocative, but the local people responded with typical hospitality to the sudden influx of Spaniards.

We doubt that they would get the same welcome again. When the tuna fishing ends following the present trip, 1993 could see up to £3 million worth of tuna landed in Castletownbere.

A bonus for the fishermen was the large number of swordfish landed which fetch high prices.

French scientists have found no evidence to suggest that the tuna is over-exploited, on the contrary, they say it is actually under exploited.

And, they're not under quota. Similar views are held by B.I.M. Castletownbere tuna fishermen hope that the Department of the Marine would continue to press for the maintenance and expansion of this valuable alternative fishery and that the Naval Service will give them some protection from the marauding Spanish.

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