“They pushed us out with red tape. They made it so expensive to run the boats, they knew they could get the deadwood out,” said Farren.
It’s extremely hard to make a living just from inshore fishing in Ireland. One of the problems, according to the Irish Fish Producers Organisation, is that anyone can fish with pots for crabs and lobsters without a license as long as they don’t sell their catch.
However, joining the EU also required Ireland to focus on conservation and sustaining its marine environment. Waste is no longer dumped into the Irish Sea and marine life around the coast has benefited from a cleaner environment. Although according to the Irish Wildlife Trust, up to 88 percent of fish stocks are being fished unsustainably. One way to protect against over-fishing proposed by the IWT would be to implement Marine Protected Areas, which create ‘no-take’ zones. The Common Fisheries Policy, which manages all fishing in EU waters, is currently under review and changes to aid conservation will be considered.
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