Ardglass fishing boat owner Simon Wills says the fishing industry in County Down is facing a perfect storm
Simon Wills, who owns five prawn trawlers based in the Ardglass fishing fleet, said that the fishing fleet across County Down has its back to the wall.
He said that fishermen from Scotland, Wales, England, and the ROI are fishing in the historic grounds that County Down boats have fished but gradually the local NI fleet is being hemmed in as jurisdictions tighten up.
“This week I spent four days fishing up at the Clyde Estuary in Scotland to fish for prawns like I have done for over twenty years, and I returned late on Thursday (yesterday).
“It seems that the Scottish government is heading towards limiting vessels from fishing there unless they have a track record of fishing the Clyde in the past,” Simon said.
He added: “This basically means by stealth many the non-Scottish boats could be weaned out from fishing the Clyde estuary eventually. There is a vessel size of 21 metres limit and one prawn boat in Ardglass is just over that size and cannot now fish the Clyde waters.
“And to make matters worse, that vessel can’t fish within the 12-mile limit of County Down whilst it has foreign crews.
“The Isle of Man have recently excluded the fleet in County Down from fishing their waters and we are left with a strip in the middle of the Irish Sea which is now heavily over-fished.
“Added to this, the cost of running foreign crews has gone through the roof. Between sorting visas, paying salaries, and flights to and from Northern Ireland, it could cost £30,000+ per worker and some crews have four foreign workers.”
On the subject of current high fuel prices, Simon Wills said: “Diesel was 68p per litre and it went up to £1.19 per litre. While we see farmers across the UK getting support from the government, and the ROI government awarding €15Million to its fishing industry, DAERA has as yet offered us nothing.
“My average fuel bill a week was £2,500 per boat, now it creeping up to over £5000. And I have five boats.
“And to complete the perfect storm, prawn prices are down around 40%. The supermarkets asked us to take in foreign workers to keep the supply going and then they cut the prawn prices.
“We can’t compete with vessels from outside County Down under all these circumstances. And there is no sign of a decommissioning scheme over the horizon. What are we supposed to do ?
WATCH VIDEO OF SIMON WILLS COMMENTING ON THE STATE IOF THE FISHING INDUSTRY
“Come September, when the prawn season dies off, I am not sure where I’ll be able to fish.
“Because of all of these factors I have described, the bottom line is this: our vessels have to fish in rougher weather to make ends meet and that therefore means increased risk of injury to our crews.
“This is a health and safety nightmare and is not acceptible.
“The boat owners, skippers and crews would like to see DAERA helping out as much as they can. The fishing industry always has had its ups and downs, but the current situation looks like a perfect storm to us.”
Ardglass is a key prawn fishing port in County Down. and it is the main industry in the village. Should the fishing industry collapse, it will have a knock-on effect to other businesses and livelihoods. Kilkeel has a developed service sector and secondary fish product producing capacity, but will be similarly affected. Portavogie has a much smaller prawn fleet as many boat owners had sold their licences a number of years ago and fish for lobsters and brown crab.
There is little room to diversify for the prawn fleet given quota restrictions. And the brown crab /lobster sector too is at saturation point. There is little room to manoeuvre for Simon Wills and the rest of the prawn fleet.
But whether Fisheries Minister Andrew Muir will throw the fishing industry a lifeline is a matter of speculation.
