During the big blow we had recently it was again noticable that Kinsale harbour was devoid of any French and Spanish trawlers sheltering from the weather. There would normally be half a dozen or so of the same boats who have been calling into port for years.
We used to be friends with a crew of French guys and shared pints and laughs through the bad gales over a couple of winters. Unfortunately at Xmas time one year they didn't make it back to port and their boat sank 30 miles offshore with the sad loss of all onboard, I never brought myself to make friends with any other crews since.
Aside from the potential dangers of fishing off Ireland what else is causing the disappearance of foreign trawlers from Irish water?
Oil costs and the poor prices they are getting for their fish back home,due to world recession, have now made it unviable to visit our waters so a lot of foreign boats are just not coming here anymore.
Our own fleet are also finding oil prices are having a major impact on how they fish.The small sandy bays around my local coastline used to get trawled regularly by the inshore fleet "having a look" to see what was about. Nowadays every single tow cost so much in fuel that only the main fishing areas, with a more guaranteed catch return, are seeing any trawling activity.
Ofcourse the benefits of this situation are starting to be felt by anglers with plaice fishing showing big signs of improvement in said bays along with dabs ,codling ,gurnards and other species.
Gill netting has also taken a hit with such a reduced effort out of Kinsale it's practically non existent nowadays. Consequently there has been an explosion in the hake stock off the southwest coast with vast amounts of fish being reported.Cod are supposed to be around in much better numbers aswell but I will wait and see before I start celebrating that news.
I hope the wrecks continue to get a rest from the netters and given time the fishing will improve on them also, those that aren't too broken up or disintegrated anyway.
So a strange silver lining in the clouds that is oil prices , unfortunately no such good news on the shore angling scene .
The local Gilthead population are now being fished to extinction by brainless anglers , and with angling journalists getting in on the action I can only hope and pray I don't see any articles in the media giving away information to other greedy individuals.
Anglers from Dublin were fishing one well known WestCork mark recently and just killed everything they caught,including gilties and schoolies, and all taken from a small sensitive stretch of water. With no small/young giltheads showing anywhere locally it looks like the end of the road for this beautiful and hard fighting species in Cork?
Some Eastern Europeans gangs continue to decimate some areas with a thriving trade being done with their local chinese restaurant , they can be seen on some marks practically fishing/killing around the clock and not a thing being done about it , and the mess! well I better not get started on that one :-(
Probably not the most PC of posts I've written and I apologise if I offend any of you, but I'm just reporting on what I have found is happening in my area , you may be experiencing similar situations where you are?
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