Every year, towards the end of January, Michael Callaghan travels with his crew aboard his 51-metre fishing boat Pacelli to waters off the coast of the Shetland Islands in Scotland.

The Killybegs-based fisherman, who has spent the last thirty years in the trade, knows that this is the point where mackerel fish – his main source of income – are at their prime for catching. They’ve fattened themselves during the months previous, feeding in the North Sea between UK, Norway and Denmark, and are beginning to migrate, following the continental shelf up over the top of Scotland and towards Ireland, before travelling to France.

By the time these fish reach Ireland, they have already lost some of their fat stores and are second-class to their counterparts caught in Scottish waters. The denial of access to those waters was something that Irish fishermen did not want to lose in the Brexit negotiations – they have kept it, but Callaghan believes it has come at a huge cost to the industry.

“We didn’t want access at any cost,” says Callaghan. “We retained access, but they literally robbed us of 26 per cent of our quota”.

Under the EU-UK free trade agreement that was reached on December 24, 2020, the Irish fishing industry will transfer a larger part of its fishing quota to the UK, taking a bigger hit than any other European country. 

According to State-run Bord Iscaigh Mhara’s 2020 report The Business of Seafood, the reduction will cost the fishing industry €43 million in total and the mackerel sector will be hit the hardest with a 26 per cent reduction of its quota over the next five years at a cost of €28.6 million. Meanwhile, prawn stocks will suffer a 14 per cent cut, losing €8.2 million. 

The Irish fleet is estimated to lose 15 per cent of its value by 2025, while the French fleet will lose 4 per cent. The Netherlands fleet will be down 9 per cent, followed by Germany and Belgium at 8 per cent. 

For fishermen like Callaghan, the reality of this trade deal paints a stark picture for the future of Irish fishing. Many within the sector feel it adds further restrictions to an industry that has suffered from the impact of the EU’s common fisheries policy, while the knock-on effect will see the closure of some of the country’s 160 processors and an increase in imported fish to keep businesses viable and meet consumer demand.

For now, Callaghan will still travel between 24 and 48 hours in late January and early February to the coast of Scotland for his mackerel catch, but over the next five years, he will take less of it home – starting with a 15 per cent decrease this year and rising to 26 per cent by 2026. 

This year, his quota reduction meant his final trip of the season saw him catch 200 tonnes of fish, rather than the 700 his boat can accommodate. “It cost me the same amount to get there with diesel and I brought home much less,” he explains.

Callaghan would prefer if Ireland was denied access to UK waters and he could catch the full quota he was eligible for in 2020 off the Irish coast. “It might not be the same value and quality of fish, but people will buy a secondary quality item at a lower price and that reduction wouldn’t be a loss of 25 per cent,” he explains.

“We have been seriously scapegoated. I feel the EU has a different agenda and certainly an anti-fishing agenda in Ireland.”

Philip Kavanagh

Philip Kavanagh, who is also based in Killybegs, says he will likely have to let two fishermen go from his 11-crew boat, the Father McKee, to ensure his boat is commercially viable because of the quota reduction.

Kavanagh fishes mackerel, horse mackerel, blue whiting, tuna, and herring – when there is a quota outlined by the European Union. He says mackerel is his biggest earner and the trade deal is a “massive blow”.

His boat receives a 3,000-tonne quota per year on average. “This year, our revenue is going to be down by 35 per cent. That is a combination of Brexit and a decline in markets that is Covid-19 driven.”

He says it’s the worst hit he has seen in his 25 years as a fisherman. The total allowable catch (TAC) is the tool used by the EU to establish fishing limits on various fish stock, and this has suffered cuts in the past, but Kavanagh says the Brexit trade deal is much more impactful.

“When they cut the mackerel by 15 or 25 per cent, then the whole Northeast Atlantic [stock] was cut and the market drove the price up and balanced out the loss of quota, most years.

“This year we have taken a hit in mackerel, but the same amount of that fish is still on the market, so the price hasn’t gone up to take the burden. We are feeling the full hit of it this time and that’s a real slap on the wrist.”

Kavanagh says he was planning to buy a new boat in the next year, but at a cost of €25 million and with the reduction in quotas, that’s not likely.

Ideally, he thinks individual transferable quotas are the way forward, where the quotas can be joined together, but he says there is some opposition to it. “There are people that are against that because they don’t like the idea of ownership of a quota, it’s seen as a national asset and resource and isn’t under anyone’s control,” says Kavanagh.

“There’s also a fear that foreign investors would come in and buy those quotas, so it would end up in the hands of a few, but I do think there’s a balance that can be struck, where you can expand your business but at the same time there’s a cap on it.”

In the long term, he is “worried about the future of fishing on this island,” airing concerns over the Brexit agreement and the tightening of fishing quotas by the EU.

“We have been seriously scapegoated. I feel the EU has a different agenda and certainly an anti-fishing agenda in Ireland. Between them and our own government, they seem hell-bent on destroying this industry. They just keep putting up blocks in front of us all the time,” he says. 

From nine months to one

Kavanagh fishes for 33 days of the year but remembers when he started out and worked nine months at sea. “We used to fish on the first day of August – leave home on Saturday evening after mass and return on a Thursday night or Friday morning – and you fished right up until Christmas and then from January to April again.”

Now, he refers to Killybegs harbour as being full of empty boats. The practicalities of running a business that has year-round running costs – such as the upkeep of the boat itself – but can only operate just over a month per year is challenging. “You have to keep generators to have power running through the boat because certain things have to be kept warm or there will be problems. So those costs are always there.”

Kavanagh’s sentiment is shared by Callaghan, who says there is extreme frustration in the industry over the criticism Irish fishermen receive around their total allowable catch quotas and overfishing.

“The enforcement authorities are trying to cripple our industry; they want us out of business. In the past all, over the world people over-fished, but 15 years ago the hammer came down on that,” says Callaghan. “There is no effort made by any fisherman to catch any illegal fish.”

Is Ireland over-fishing?

The Irish fishing industry has repeatedly come under fire for overfishing, with continued reports from environmental groups, such as Birdwatch Ireland, saying the country is playing a “leading role” in EU failure to end overfishing.

It was reported in March that a recent EU investigation over a four-year period found that Ireland’s fishery controls are unsatisfactory, with 33 cases of suspected fraud connected to overfishing of stocks in Ireland reported to the DPP.

Separately, a group of fishing and processing businesses have been locked in a long legal battle against the Sea Fisheries Protection Authority over the process used to weigh their catch.

According to Paul Connolly, chief executive of the Marine Institute and an environmental scientist, when it comes to deciding quotas, two things are looked at – the total weight of fish in a stock that are old enough to spawn and the fishing pressure that gives the maximum sustainable yield in the long term.

“Any time somebody says a stock is overfished, they are technically right if the pressure that has been applied to that stock is above the reference point that you’re trying to apply in the policy,” says Connolly. “

“You need to look at that in terms of sustainability, though. It doesn’t mean that the stock is going to run out of fish,” Connolly says, highlighting that these figures are set to ensure the maximum sustainable yield of the fishing stock.

He also stresses that when it comes to estimating total allowable catches for the coming year, science doesn’t always get it right.  

“There’s a statistical process that goes on behind a stock assessment and it’s quite complicated, it requires a lot of data and in some cases, it is also quite uncertain. So, the capacity of science to measure exact fishing pressure from one year to the next is not great,” he says.

When asked how Ireland is performing when it comes to overfishing, Connolly says “Ireland is performing the same as all the rest because stocks are not managed in an Irish context.”

According to Emer Rogan, professor of environmental science at University College Cork, Europe is moving towards an ecosystem approach to fisheries management, which means other elements of the ecosystem are incorporated into fisheries management.

She highlights that the reduction of a fishing stock can impact not just the species itself but the area that it inhabits too.

“The best-studied example is from the North Sea where they have a large industrial fishery for sandeel, which is also a key prey species for a number of higher predators, such as harbour porpoise and kittiwakes,” she says.

“There has been a lot of research looking at the breeding success of seabirds, and kittiwakes in particular in the North Sea, with good evidence to show that when fishing mortality is low, breeding success is high and vice versa.”

Within an Irish context, Rogan says more needs to be done around monitoring the bycatch that occurs when fishermen catch fish.

“Better and more robust estimates of fish discarding and marine megafauna (marine mammals, seabirds, turtles) mortality are required, which could be achieved either by increasing observer effort or by using electronic monitoring systems, in my opinion.”

It’s not just the fishermen that are being impacted by the Brexit trade deal – processors are also facing challenging times ahead. 

Ken Ecock is the managing director of Oceanpath, which provides fresh fish for fish counters across Irish supermarkets, as well as smoked mackerel, salmon and prawn cocktail under its William Carr & Sons and Dunn’s of Dublin brands. He says it’s getting increasingly difficult to find mackerel and whiting at Irish port landings. 

“Pardon the pun, but we literally have to go fishing to see where there are landings of what we need. Whether that’s mackerel from Killybegs or Mayo, or whiting from down south,” he says.

“The impact of a 15 per cent decrease in quota is going to have a knock-on effect, consumption might necessarily decrease because of it and the value to the Irish industry is going to be significant.” 

Oceanpath, a family business started by Ecock’s father and uncle, was fully bought in November last year after Iceland Seafood International (ISI) acquired a final 33 per cent stake in the business. The firm is now valued at €13 million. 

Since ISI initially showed interest in the Howth-based company and bought a percentage in 2018, it has invested €4 million to extend the facility and helped it grow, according to Ecock – leading to the acquisition of Irish seafood processing firm William Carr & Sons from the Swedish Mondi Group. 

Though it is early days to say how exactly it will impact financially, Ecock says the decreased quota is putting a burden on the company’s ability to source fish and satisfy customers. While his customers want Irish fish, if there are less available he says the company will have to start to import more fish from abroad.

“Our customers want to buy as much Irish fish as possible and support the Irish industry, and they will actively promote how much they support Irish fishing. But at the end of the day, if a person going into a supermarket wants cod, it’s their job to have that cod for them.”

The company is already importing salmon from Scotland and cod from Iceland or Norway, according to Ecock.

“Everyone will be fighting for their corner now, and some fishermen will lose and some will gain.”

Diarmuid O’Donovan

Diarmuid O’Donovan is the chief executive of Glenmar Shellfish, based in Unionhall, Co Cork, which exports three quarters of the 3,000 tonnes of shellfish it processes each year to France, Spain, America and Asia. He says it’s hard for the company to calculate the impact the reduction in Irish fishing quotas will have on his business.

“That’s the hardest part for the fishing industry and we will probably find there will be a lack of investment until there is more clarity,” O’Donovan says.

In 2015, the company was bought out by the Lisavaird Co-op, part of the Carbery dairy agribusiness group. “There were three founders here and we sold over five years ago, and Lisavaird said they would invest in the seafood sector and grow the business – they have kept their side of the bargain.”

The firm has since expanded, opening two new processing and distributing centres in Dublin and growing its staff to 72 people.

O’Donovan says at the moment, processors are “hemmed in” by quotas. “It’s very hard to extend the seafood business in Ireland without more quota.”

His company operates 13 commercial fishing boats and takes produce from 100 other Irish boats. Prawns, crabs, clams, lobsters, squids and mussels are its bread and butter, which means its business is impacted by the loss of 14 per cent in prawn quotas over the next few years. 

“A lot of the product we source from boats is caught in English waters, especially prawns. Everyone will be fighting for their corner now, and some fishermen will lose and some will gain,” he says. 

According to Dominic Rihan, economics and strategic services director at Bord Iscaigh Mhara, the reduction of quotas will impact some of Ireland’s 160 processors, with a portion expected to close down. 

“It’s likely that there will be casualties. It’s not going to be perfect and when you add on other complications of trade now with the UK and bringing produce through the land bridge in the UK, increased charges, fees and paperwork, there will be a knock-on effect,” he says.

To survive, Rihan says processors must re-think their business model. 

“They will be looking at how they can add value to the fixed raw material they have, and they are also going to look at where they can get extra raw material – whether that be from aquaculture, fish farming, or from importing from other countries, which is not ideal from a national perspective.”

Some fishermen in the industry have raised concerns that other larger companies from other countries – in particular Scandanavian companies – will begin to buy out Irish firms. Rihan says it may happen, but he sees amalgamation of Irish firms more likely, which has already begun with Glenmar.  

When it comes to the impact the reduction of quotas will have on the players involved in the recent Green Isle and Donegal Catch buyout, Rihan thinks the business will fare well.  

In March 2019, the State’s Ireland Strategic Investment Fund backed the acquisition of the processor operating under the Donegal Catch and Green Isle brands with a €6.9 million equity investment, later reporting a total €11 million capital commitment to the business. The deal, reported to be worth €22 million in total, saw an investor group led by former Largo Foods chief executive Maurice Hickey buy the Sligo and Kildare-based business from UK food group 2 Sisters.

“They take a lot of fish locally but they also import a lot of fish because they have the lines there, so they can make breaded products, they can add value to the fish they have. I think they are in a fairly strong position,” Rihan says. “I think the issue really is around the smaller operators.”

“A retirement scheme for vessels”

Of course, those who will suffer most directly are the fishermen themselves. Rihan says that looking at the quota reduction Ireland took in the deal, “we were absolutely disproportionately impacted. As a wider political agreement, it’s hard to take”.

Rihan says not every stock has been reduced, and some fishermen will bear the brunt more than others. In particular, those who fish for mackerel and prawns face the steepest changes.

“We have less quota but we still have the same number of vessels, so there has to be a rebalancing there,” Rihan says.

When asked what that “rebalancing” will look like, he adds that Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConologue has set up a task force that is currently looking at a number of measures. 

“Nothing has been agreed yet, but we are talking about a temporary tie-up scheme so vessels would tie up for a short period of time to spread the quota out over the year. We are also looking at a decommissioning scheme, which would take vessels out of the fleet altogether. It’s like a retirement scheme for vessels for want of a better term.

“We are also looking at a raft of other ideas like diversifying fishermen into areas like aquaculture and looking at how aquaculture can make the difference in raw materials for the processors.”

Then he adds: “There is no magic bullet here and these are tough measures, they are not something that you do lightly.”