County Down fishermen met with DARD fisheries officials last week in the Millbrook Lodge Hotel in Ballynahinch  to discuss how they can meet the EU fish discard ban and  ensure that their nets are fishing legally. Fishermen from the three County Down ports of Portavogie, Ardglass and Kilkeel were present.
Through 2014, local fishermen have struggled to make ends meet and the changes in the net style and mesh sizes has meant a serious drop in income for most fishermen.
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At the meeting in the Millbrook Lodge Hotel to discuss solutions to fishing net arrangements, were Mike Montgomery, Dard official, Norman Kelly, netmaker, Paddy Campbell, DARD Fisheries official, and Ardglass boat owners David Briggs and Stephen Kearney.[/caption]
Ardglass skipper and boatowner Stephen Kearney explained: “Quite simply we re losing prawns through the net as it is at the present moment. Sometimes fishing with a single or twin net system is just not viable, especially if the prawns are small as they are in our sector in the Irish Sea.
“We were over in Denmark recently looking at flume tanks and how the nets behave when being towed. The officials there were surprised that we were still using our current nets with 300mm panels which fish can easily escape through, and prawns.
“The main difficulty arose when the EU said that we had to use a Swedish box. This was a technical modification added on to the net to allow the small fish and cod to swim out. However, it did not work on our prawn boats due to design issues. It could not be retrieved from the sea as the box frame was too bulky and there is not enough room at the stern of our boats. So we ended up with a compromise which the EU accepted but that too is not working well for us. We adopted a Sultra box system too but prawns are just escaping with the fish.
“Fishermen in Scotland and in the Republic if Ireland have different net sizes and arrangements and we are losing out in County Down.
“We have  very limited options. We are here today to find out what can and can’t be done. These panels fixed on top of out nets are just not doing the business for us. Something has to be done. It will need some technical readjustments but this needs to be approved by the EU.
“Our backs are to the wall on this. We certainly need a solution, fast, as the summer season will soon be on us again.”
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Prawn trawlers tied up in Ardglass. Local fishermen are concerned that EU regulations are making their business unprofitable.[/caption]
A DARD Fisheries spokesperson said: “DARD invited County Down prawn fishermen to a meeting in Ballynahinch on Friday 20 February to discuss improvements in fishing gear selectivity in order to meet the requirements of the forthcoming EU landing obligation, otherwise known as the discard ban.
“The ban is being phased in from now until 2019 after which time prawn vessels will have to land catches of all fish that are subject to fishing quotas. The prawn fleet already uses gear that is very good at reducing catches of cod but now the challenge is on to reduce catches of other fish such as whiting and haddock.
“A number of the fishermen attending had recently come back from DARD-funded gear technology courses on gear and selectivity in Denmark and there was a lively discussion about the range of selectivity devices available. The fishermen identified several possibilities for improvement and three gear developments were selected as candidates for gear trials this year.
“The objective of the trials is to find fishing gear that is effective and profitable in reducing discards but keeping prawns. “
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