The Sea-Fisheries Protection Authority (SFPA) says that Irish vessels accounted for over 95 per cent of landings into Irish ports and harbours in 2023.
Vessels from France, Britain and Spain were the top three among non-Irish vessels in the SFPA report.
The authority’s annual statistics drew on data provided in landing declarations and sales notes for all vessels landing into Ireland, and on information provided to it by the sector on Irish vessels landing outside Ireland.
It says that in terms of volumes and values, there were 44,396 vessel landings in Ireland totalling 244,989 tonnes valued at €395,985,405 in 2023.
“Irish vessels accounted for over 95% of landings with 2,040 non-Irish vessels landing into Irish ports in 2023,”it claims.
Leading species were blue whiting at over 103,000 tonnes, valued at over 30.5 million euro, and Atlantic mackerel, at almost 57,000 tonnes and valued at almost 86 million euro.
There were 584 landings by Irish vessels into other ports, principally Britain (293 landings) and the Netherlands (125 landings). 8,500 tonnes valued at over 32 million euro, the SFPA data says.
SFPA executive chair Paschal Hayes said that “collecting and reporting data in relation to sea-fisheries, as required under community law, is an important part of the SFPA’s mandate”.
“The SFPA uses the available data to monitor trends in sea-fishing vessel landings, locations and species being caught and to support our role as a sea-fisheries control authority,”he said.
“This information is also beneficial to key stakeholders as well as supporting our service delivery and workforce management,” he said.
Annual and quarterly statistics, including landings and inspections, are published on the SFPA website.
The website’s statistics pages provides fishers and members of the public with a “one stop shop” to access a range of useful data on fishing activity, including Quota Uptake which is available on a weekly basis, the SFPA says.
