#DeanLeanne - Jury members have returned a verdict of "misadventure" in the deaths of three brothers after their fishing boat sank off Co Waterford more two years ago.

At the inquest yesterday (Thursday 5 November) into the tragedy that befell the MFV Dean Leanne on 12 June 2013, it was heard that brothers Paul, Shane and Kenny Bolger from Passage West died by drowning in the wake of their lobster boat suddenly going under.

Speaking after the inquest, according to Irish Independent, the Bolger family's solicitor Emmet Halley described their loss as an "unspeakable tragedy".

As previously reported on Afloat.ie, the Marine Casualty Investigation Board's (MCIB) report on the incident found a series of poor safety practices on the Bolgers' vessel on top of a malfunctioning EPIRB radio of a model later recalled by its manufacturer.

The inquest in Tramore heard that search and rescue teams were not notified till the brothers' uncle, also a fisherman, set out to look for them late in the day after seeing them depart Dunmore East by chance that morning.

Their boat itself was only rated to carry two crew, said the MCIB's findings, while its fibreglassed hull was found to have "extensive rot and decay".

Only two of the brothers were found to be wearing personal flotation devices (PFDs) when their bodies were recovered, and neither of these was well maintained, the report added.

#Fishing - An Egyptian fisherman was arrested in Union Hall yesterday (Wednesday 4 November) for failing to produce valid work documentation.

As The Irish Times reports, the news comes as the Government's new interdepartmental taskforce begins its investigation of issues raised by this week's claims of exploitation in the Irish fishing industry.

The fisherman in question was one of two Egyptian nationals questioned by gardaí in the West Cork fishing port yesterday as the Marine Survey Office was carrying out a safety inspection of their Irish-registered trawler.

He has been charged with an offence under the Immigration Act and was scheduled to appear before Bandon District Court today (Thursday 5 November) – the same day as the first scheduled meeting of the Government taskforce to decide on a "co-ordinated and effective cross-Government approach" to the treatment of workers across the Irish fishing fleet.

Meanwhile, the Migrant Rights Centre Ireland (MRCI) has called on Marine Minister Simon Coveney to declare an amnesty for undocumented workers on Irish prawn and whitefish boats "as a matter of urgency".

Yesterday a number of leading fishing industry figures hit out at the Guardian's report on exploitation in the Irish fleet, which highlighted the plight of a number of migrant fishermen who have made allegations of illegal fishing practices, breaches of safety regulations and trafficking of undocumented workers, among other issues.

#Fishing - Fishermen wishing to apply for oyster dredge licences for the 2016 season must apply on the official form to the relevant river basin district office before noon on Friday 27 November.

According to Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI), the application process is necessary due to the growing number of Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) and Natura 2000 sites in Ireland that also contain oyster fisheries.

As oyster fishing requires dredging, IFI says that "appropriate assessment of these fishing activities will have to be undertaken."

It added: "In the absence of appropriate assessments, against predetermined conservation objectives, it is necessary to ensure that no intensification of the fishing activity for oysters be permitted."

For further information, the official application procedure and the application form, visit the IFI website HERE.

#Fishing - The Guardian's damning exposé of exploitation in the Irish fishing fleet is not representative of the industry as a whole, according to the head of one of Ireland's top fishing co-operatives.

John Nolan of the Castletownbere Fishermen's Co-op told The Irish Times that his members "would have no truck with trafficking people or abusing people or anything like that and I can say that any foreign nationals working on our boats are treated the same as the Irish crew."

As previously reported on Afloat.ie, Monday's lengthy investigative report by the Guardian revealed evidence of exploitation of migrant workers at all main fishing ports in the Republic on both prawn and whitefish boats.

It also carried the first-hand accounts of a number of foreign fishermen, some of whom say they were trafficked into the State, ad who described a "catalogue of abuses" including overwork, sleep deprivation, being confined to their vessels in port, and lack of safety training – the latter believed to be a contributory factor in the tragic loss of five fishermen on the Tit Bonhomme of Union Hall in January 2012.

However, Nolan dismissed notions that the Irish fishing fleet is "some sort of sweatshop industry", adding that he "would be certain that 95 per cent of boat owners treat their crew properly and I just don't recognise the industry I know from the Guardian article."

His sentiments were echoed by The Skipper editor Niall Duffy, who argued that the majority of undocumented workers in the industry were comparable to Irish working without visas in the United States, and that the situation is "an entirely different issue to how they were treated".

In other fishing news, a skipper from Northern Ireland has been fined after being convicted of fishing for king scallops in a closed area off the Isle of Man.

As BBC News reports, Ryan Newell and the crew of his body Golden Fleece were caught fishing off the Manx coast on Sunday 1 November. He was fined £5,000 and ordered to forfeit his scallop catch, worth over £2,000.

#Fishing - Marine Minister Simon Coveney has said he is "very concerned" about revelations in the Guardian regarding widespread exploitation of migrant workers in the Irish fishing industry.

The minister released a short statement last night (Monday 2 November) just hours after the newspaper published its exposé of trafficked labour on trawlers throughout Ireland's fishing fleet.

The year-long undercover investigation by a team of Guardian journalists found evidence of undocumented labour on prawn and whitefish boats working from Ireland's biggest fishery harbours.

First-hand accounts from a number of these migrant fishermen – mainly from Ghana, the Philippines, Egypt and India – describe a "catalogue of abuses", including overwork, sleep deprivation, lack of safety training, withheld wages far below the Irish minimum, and being confined to their vessels when in port.

Sleep deprivation in particular has been linked to the Tit Bonhomme tragedy in January 2012, which took the lives of five of its six crew - two Irish, including the skipper, and four Egyptian, one of them the lone survivor.

Earlier this year the families of two of the deceased Egyptian fishermen reaches a settlement in the High Court over the incident – which the Guardian says was exacerbated by the absence of mandatory emergency drills in the months before, and the lack of enough lifesaving gear on board for the whole crew.

Lax safety protocols have also been claimed in the death of Filipino fisherman Joel Alama, who was overcome by fumes while attempting to rescue Irish colleague James Joyce, who also died, from their trawler's hold in Killybegs this past August.

What's more, it's believed that a number of migrant workers have been trafficked into working on boats in Ireland.

One Filipino fisherman claims he was contracted via an agency to work on a boat sailing from Belfast to Morocco, but on arrival was driven across Ireland to Crosshaven to fish in Irish waters without the necessary permits.

Speaking on RTÉ Radio 1's Morning Ireland this morning, one of the reporters on the story, food and farming journalist Ella McSweeney, spoke of exploitation of migrant labour being an "open secret" in the Irish fishing fleet.

She said this makes it doubly difficult for "good Irish trawler owners" to compete with boats that work illegally, not only by exploiting undocumented crew but also misreporting their logs and fishing beyond their grounds, among other shortcuts.

McSweeney added that the courts in Ireland have been "too lenient" in cases where exploitation has already come to light, and that the laws to prevent the situation are already there but are "not being enforced".

Morning Ireland also spoke to Grainne O'Toole of the Migrant Rights Centre Ireland, who called on the Government to introduce visa regularisation for trafficked workers "and ensure they they are able to reclaim the wages owed to them".

Dismissing criticisms that the State has been "turning a blind eye" to widespread abuses in the fishing fleet, Minister Coveney – who only last July welcomed a report on improving safety and welfare standards in the fishing industry – said the Department of Justice has confirmed a project, led by the Garda, "specifically to address concerns in relation to human trafficking in the maritime sector".

This project "aims to provide a comprehensive and multi-disciplinary approach the issue, involving a broad range of competent State agencies ... and civil society organisations."

The Guardian has much more on the story HERE.

#FishFarm - Long-term solutions for freshwater treatment at Connemara fish farms are a priority as one local company seeks planning permission for a new pipeline, according to Galway Bay FM.

The moves come in the wake of recent controversy over illegal extraction of freshwater from lakes used to treat amoebic gill disease in salmon farms.

Údarás na Gaeltachta is now investigating longer-term freshwater availability for the growing aquaculture industry in south Connemara. Galway Bay FM has more HERE.

#MarineWildlife - Seals are not threatening commercial fishing stocks in Irish waters, with the possible exception of wild Atlantic salmon, according to new research led by Queen's University Belfast.

The findings show that seals are having no significant impact on populations of the most popular species of fish caught for commercial purposes along the south and west coasts of Ireland from Galway to Waterford.

The first comprehensive study of its kind, the conclusions of this research – led by QUB in collaboration with University College Cork and the Marine Institute – suggest that the seals do not compete with fishermen over the stocks.

The issue of seals in Irish waters has been controversial in recent years, and there have been calls from some quarters for culls of the common marine mammals.

"We need to emphasise that this work in no way says that seals cause no problems for the fishing industry," said lead researcher Dr Keith Farnsworld of QUB. "They do create significant problems for static fishing gear, such as the fixed nets used by estuarine salmon fishers, and they may also impact on numbers of wild salmon, although most salmon eaten on these islands is farmed.

"What we are saying is that for most commercially fished species off the south and west coasts of Ireland – herring, mackerel, cod, haddock, whiting and 30 other species – seals are having no significant negative effect on numbers.

"This is because the seals are eating much smaller fish than the larger, mature specimens that fishermen are required by law to catch. So seals are often eating the same species of fish as we buy in the supermarkets, but younger versions of them. And there are hundreds more younger fish than mature fish in any given species.

"In fact, we found evidence that seals may actually be doing the fishermen a favour, by eating some species that prey on the valuable stocks the fishermen are after."

Prof David Reid of the Marine Institute added that "what this work shows is that the only way to really resolve questions like this one is to be able to actually look at the detail, and work out what is going on.

"This work used material as diverse as the gut contents of the seals and the fish, through seal 'scat', to samples taken from commercial catches and research vessel surveys, and elaborate mathematical models.

"The idea of seals being direct competitors with the fishing boats for the fish out there intuitively seems pretty obvious. But actually, in this case, it is not really true. They both 'eat' fish. But not the same fish, and they do not compete with each other.

"This is not to say," he added, "that seals do not compete with fishermen in other ways. In other recent work we showed that fishermen who use set nets round the coast of Ireland can lose fish straight out of their nets to seals. But as with this study, we needed to go into the detail, and get our hands dirty to prove that."

The findings of this new research are based on data from an area roughly 100 miles off south and west Ireland, encompassing the coastlines of counties Waterford, Cork, Kerry, Clare and Galway. The data was collected from seal droppings of both grey and common seals and collated by researchers from University College Cork.

Supplementary information was obtained from the Marine Institute and the International Council for the Exploration of the Seas (ICES).

The data was then interpreted by researchers at QUB's Institute for Global Food Security. Their conclusions have been published today in The Journal of Applied Ecology.

The study will be good news to the ears of seal fans in Northern Ireland, whose grey seal population is having a bumper year in 2015, as BBC News reports.

Co Down in particular is reporting strong numbers at such seal-friendly locations as the Copeland Islands and Strangford Lough, where 107 seal pups were counted this year – a sign of good health for the ecosystem as a whole.

BBC News has more on the story HERE.

#Fishing - Marine Minister Simon Coveney has welcomed the positive outcome of the international fisheries negotiations that concluded today (Tuesday 27 October) at the National Seafood Centre in Clonakilty, Co Cork.

As previously reported on Afloat.ie, the negotiations between Norway, the Faroe Islands and the European Union concerned the management of mackerel in the North East Atlantic.

The mackerel quota for Irish fishermen for 2016 will be just over 75,000 tonnes. This reflects a precautionary approach in accordance with the latest scientific advice and the long-term management strategy also agreed between the parties today.

“I welcome the outcome of the international mackerel negotiations today, which Ireland not only hosted but was also a central participant as the second largest EU quota holder," said the minister.

"Irish fishermen will now have a quota of 75,000 tonnes, worth over €63m directly to our catching sector, for 2016 and the new long term management strategy will provide stability to our fishermen in this vital fishery for Ireland by avoiding large variations in the quota from year to year.”

Mackerel is Ireland’s single most valuable fishery and today’s agreement provides a high quota, stability and a framework to help ensure the long term sustainability of the stock.

The latest agreement builds on the five-year sharing agreement reached in March 2014 between those parties. Further discussions on that agreement are expected in the coming months.

Minister Coveney added that “while the quota achieved by Ireland is less than that of the last two years, those quotas were unusually high by historical standards.

"The quota of 75,000 tonnes achieved today is considerably higher than our historical average quota of approximately 54,000 tonnes, apart from the last two years. Crucially, for the sustainability and stability of this vital fishery for Ireland, we now also have a long-term management strategy in place for mackerel.

"As always, industry representatives, in particular, Sean O’Donoghue of the Killybegs Fishermens Organisation were extremely helpful to the Irish negotiating team.”

#RNLI - Rosslare Harbour RNLI's volunteer lifeboat crew participating in an exercise on Sunday morning (25 October) in Rosslare Bay were diverted to a fishing vessel with an injured crewman on board.

The fishing boat was a mile northeast of Rosslare Europort when the lifeboat station was alerted at 10.30am.

First aid was given by the volunteer crew who assisted the injured fisherman on board the lifeboat, which promptly returned to station to transfer the casualty to a waiting ambulance.

Conditions at the time of the callout were good, with light westerly winds and morning sunshine.

Commenting on the callout, Rosslare RNLI volunteer lifeboat press officer Jamie Ryan said: "The RNLI volunteers were very swift in transferring the casualty to shore as they were already at sea on exercise."

#Fishing - Overfishing. Pollution. Exploitation. Carelessness. The story of one American fishing captain's experiences onboard a nominally US-flagged boat in the Pacific tuna fleet is an alarming one.

Writing for Matter, science writer Kalee Thompson reports on Doug Pine's near-mutiny on board the tuna boat Majestic Blue, the culmination of a series of disturbing events themselves the end result of dodgy deals involving a Korean conglomerate with a reputation for illegal fishing, and congressional lobbyists pushing for ever more lax regulations in order to preserve a paper presence in the tuna business.

Efforts to save America's dwindling tuna fishing industry in the wake of the dolphin catch scandals of decades past found a solution in outsourcing – and have produced a farcical situation where American 'captains' preside over what for all practical purposes are foreign boats with foreign crews, with no actual control over what happens at sea.

And that's only the half of it when it comes to the so-called 'distant water tuna fleet', operating amid a kind of lawlessness akin to piracy around the poverty-stricken islands of the Western Pacific, at the expense of marginalised crew and vulnerable marine wildlife alike.

Matter has much more on the story HERE.