Call to Action: Consultation on Trawling Activity in 6 Nautical Mile Zone

Published April 05th 2024

The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine wants to hear your views on vessels trawling within the 6 nautical mile (6nm) zone around Ireland’s coastlines and we are encouraging everyone to take the time to submit a quick response. The 6nm zone is the area reaching out 6nm from the baselines around our coast (see Fig.1). This area is rich in biodiversity and has important spawning grounds for fish as well as nursery areas for all manner of marine life. This is one of the most important actions we can take right now to help conserve and protect Irish marine life.

Fig 1. Marine Special Areas of Conservation (SAC) and Special Protection Areas (SPAs) around Ireland (source: https://www.npws.ie/protected-sites ). The map also shows the baselines and bay closing lines defined in Statutory Instruments No 22/2016 and 155/2019. The 6nm zone extends 6nm from the coast (including small islands and exposed banks) or from the baselines/bay closing lines (whichever is further). IMAGE SOURCE: Fisheries inside Ireland’s 6nm zone. Hans Gerritsen, Guillermo Martin, Oliver Tully, Colm Lordan – Marine Institute – Version 3, 19/10/23.

We have put together a few key points for you to include within your submission and the reasoning behind this. The Irish Wildlife trust has also submitted to this consultation and we have included a link to our full submission for anyone who would like more information. 

Background

Currently there are no restrictions on vessels trawling within the 6nm zone. This is after a ban on vessels over 18m trawling was overturned last year on a legal technicality. The consultation offers 4 options to choose from. They are – 

1. No change to the status quo
2. All sea-fishing boats excluded from pair trawling inside the 6nm zone and baselines
3. All sea-fishing boats over 18m in length overall excluded from trawling inside the 6nm zone and baselines
4. All sea-fishing boats over 15m in length overall excluded from trawling inside the 6nm zone and baselines

We are calling on people to choose option 3 and for vessels over 18m in length to be excluded from trawling across the entire 6nm zone immediately.

Main reasoning and points to include

• Small scale vessels take less than 30% of the annual total landings from the 6nm zone. Larger vessels have the ability to fish further out to sea, yet they still take the majority of fish from the inshore area. 

• Having a ban on these large vessels will have the greatest positive impact for the inshore marine environment and the coastal economy.

• Sprat is a forage fish which is extremely important for marine food webs. Marine mammals, fish and seabirds all rely heavily on this species for their survival and yet there are no regulations in place on fishing for this species. Large scale vessels are decimating sprat populations and the knock on ecological effects are devastating.

Another key point to include would be that there needs to be better management of fisheries within the inshore area. Currently many species have no quota or management plans and so it is easy for these species to be overfished.

IWT submission

The Irish Wildlife Trust’s submission to this consultation goes into further detail on the different issues around trawling and the lack of management of fish species in the inshore area. We make further recommendations for the department to consider in regards to destructive fishing but for this consultation our main point is to reinstate the ban on vessels over 18m trawling in the 6nm zone immediately. 

Full IWT Submission

If you would like further information, the Department has provided several documents going into detail on fishing activity and socio economic impacts on trawling within the 6nm zone which can be viewed here.

How to submit

There are two ways to submit. You can either fill out the survey linked below and be sure to include that you want the ban reinstated immediately and at national level. You can also send a direct email to the department or send your submission by post. The deadline for this consultation is 1pm on the 12/04/2024

Online survey :

https://ec.europa.eu/eusurvey/runner/TrawlingConsultation 

or

Email: TrawlingConsultation@agriculture.gov.ie (Quoting

 “Inside 6 Trawling Consultation” addressed to the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine) 

or Post: Public Consultation on Trawling Activity Inside 6nm, Sea Fisheries Policy and Management Division,

 Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, National Seafood Centre, Clonakilty, Co. Cork , P85 TX47