Claiming that up to 300 catchers could be affected, fishermen in Ireland’s biggest river consider raising legal challenge to the country’s eel fishing ban.
The Shannon Eel Fishermen’s Association has found support from both MP’s and, surprisingly, the Green Party’s deputy leader Mary White.
The EU Fisheries Ministers last year called for the Member States to submit national management plans for the dwindling eel stocks to the Commission by the end of 2008. The pronounced goal in the regulation is that 40 per cent of the eel in EU waters will be able to return to the Sargasso Sea to spawn. The Commission is expected to publish its compilation of the national plans later this spring.
The most radical national plan so far has been announced by Ireland, which included a total eel fishing ban, described by a Swedish top fisheries bureaucrat as “impressively forceful”.
Damien Murray of the Shannon river association says fishermen dispute the scientific arguments put forward by his government, and claims there was insufficient research and a lack of consultation.
Fishermen also complain about the lack of compensation for loss of income, whereas “bankers, politicians and public servants receive lavish payments when they become redundant”, Murray adds.