#MISSING BOATS - The Irish Times reports that the body of a man in his 60s has been recovered from the sea off West Cork in the early hours of this morning.

The body, believed to be that of John O'Leary from Allihies, was found as part of a major search operation after the sailing dinghy carrying the man and his 18-year-old son Christopher overturned off the Beara Peninsula yesterday evening.

According to RTÉ News, the two spent four hours clinging to the boat before swimming towards the shore. Christopher reached land almost 1km away to raise the alarm but his father went missing in the interim.

The boat was discovered around 8pm with no sign of John O'Leary in the vicinity, according to the Irish Independent.

The Irish Coast Guard at Valentia co-ordinated the search operation from 9pm last night, and volunteers with the Castletownbere RNLI lifeboat recovered a body off Cod's Head around 1.30am. A postmortem will be carried out later today at Cork University Hospital.

Meanwhile, the search continues for a missing fishing boat off Co Clare.

The Lady Eileen, with two crew on board, was due to return to Quilty yesterday evening.

Coastguard search teams discovered debris and diesel in the water near Spanish Point before the search was postponed due to low light.

Garda divers have been asked to assist in the search and are due in the area around midday.

#ANGLING - Henry's Tackle Shop in Ballybough is conducting a countrywide survey to determine the extent of the decline of bass activity around Ireland's coastline.

According to the shop's Henry Lynam and Pat Daly, the last two years have seen some unusually low bass activity on many coasts.

As part of their national survey, they are asking anglers to return log book pages to measure the quality of the bass fishing across Ireland this year.

"Bass are a species protected by by-laws," they wrote on their blog. "The quality of protection afforded by these laws has varied but have mainly been sufficient to help the stock recover from a serious crash in the 1980s to a reasonable level over many years.

"We fear now that with the double edged sword of financial stress increasing the number of poachers and decreasing budget for fisheries protection that perhaps bass are coming under pressure again."

Other factors they note include the year's weather extremes and the large and the unusual northward movement of local plankton.

"Whatever the cause we can only observe and record the resulting facts for presentation to someone who is in a position to act."

The warning comes as calls are being made to reopen Ireland's bass fisheries for commercial fishing. Anglers are asked to return their bass angling log book pages at the end of the bass fishing season to Henry's Tackle Shop, 19 Ballybough Road, Dublin 3.

#COASTGUARD - A crewman on a French trawler off West Cork has been airlifted to hospital by coastguard helicopter, as RTÉ News reports.

The fisherman is understood to have suffered head injuries on the fishing vessel some 240km off the Beara Peninsula in the early hours of this morning Tuesday 7 August.

The Irish Coast Guard's Valentia unit co-ordinated the airlift, dispatching the Shannon rescue helicopter to the trawler. The injured man was winched on board and taken to Cork University Hospital. His current condition is not yet known.

#FISHING - Dingle fishermen trawling for tuna off the south-west coast of Ireland found a big surprise in their nets this week in the form of an enormous 2-metre-long bluefin.

As The Irish Times reports, the Atlantic bluefin is considered one of the big game fish and is highly sought-after for top-quality sushi, a demand that has led to its adding to the endangered species list.

Strict quotas have been placed on bluefin for fishermen who normally trawl for albacore tuna - but the Dingle boats Fiona K and the Atlantic Venture were lucky that their unexpected catch was within the 1% they are allowed each year.

The 140kg tuna is set to end up in shops and restaurants in Dingle and throughout Kerry for much less than one would pay for such fish in Japan, where a bluefin double the size went for over €600,000 earlier this year.

Meanwhile, an even bigger bluefin was snappped up by eager fish lovers at Limerick's Milk Market last weekend.

The 250kg goliath was caught 600 miles off Castletownbere in Co Cork by local fisherman JD Sullivan, according to the Limerick Leader.

“The tuna migrate up the west coast of Ireland around this time of year, but very few of them are caught,” said Paul Cusack of Rene Cusack’s fish shop in the market.

It's leading some to question if there's something in the water, with news from Angling Times of a giant 189lb common skate recently caught off the coast of Northern Ireland.

#MARINE WILDLIFE - An algal bloom off the west coast of Ireland is responsible for significant fish and shellfish kills from Galway to Donegal, according to the Marine Institute.

As The Irish Times reports, as much as 80% of stocks have been affected on Donegal oyster farms, and the bloom is also impacting negatively on angling tourism in the west and northwest.

The algae responsible, karenia mikimotai, occurs naturally in Ireland's coastal waters during the summer months and his harmless to humans, but contains a "toxic irritant" that damages the gills of fish, shellfish and other marine species.

Low-level samples were first detected in May but in the last two weeks it has grown into a dense bloom from Donegal to Mayo, with high levels now being recorded in Galway Bay, according to the Marine Institute's Joe Silke.

"In Donegal the bloom was so dense that there were many reports of discoloured red or brown water in some areas and several areas have reported dead marine life washing up on the shoreline, requiring local authorities to close certain beaches,” he said.

"The bloom affects species that live on or near the sea bed so we are seeing flatfish, lugworms and some shellfish getting washed up on the beaches."

The image evokes memories of the notorious 'red tide' that killed wild fish and shellfish along the west coast in 2005.

Meanwhile, the Marine Insitute said there are "some indications" that the bloom may be moving back out to sea, as observed in the latest satellite images and modelling data.

"However, cell counts of samples analysed in the Marine Institute... show that the bloom is still of the same density in the Donegal and Sligo regions as it was last week."

#coastguard – A man and his teenage son have been rescued from their upturned fishing boat this afternoon on the Irish Sea.

Liverpool Coastguard received a call at 12.45 pm to report that the man and his son were on top of the hull of their orange open topped fishing boat. The boy was wearing a lifejacket. They had called a shore contact, using their waterproof mobile phone, who had then called the Coastguard.

Lytham St Annes RNLI inshore and all weather lifeboats were requested to launch and soon found the man and his son off Lytham St Annes. Both had been in the sea for about half an hour and were very cold. They were brought to shore and were then transferred on to hospital.

Rescue Coordination Centre Manager Tony Topping said:

"Fortunately the man and his son were found relatively quickly following their phone call and they had been able to scramble onto the hull of their small vessel.

If you're using your mobile phone in an emergency situation at sea or along the coast call 999 and ask for the Coastguard. This must always be your first call.

We would like to remind people who are setting to sea in small boats to take a reliable method of communication with them along with a back-up method. A portable waterproof vhf radio is ideal with a waterproof mobile phone or phone in a plastic bag as back-up. Remember that in many places around the coast mobile phone coverage is patchy and a radio is much more reliable."

#FISHING – At the request of Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Simon Coveney TD, the issue of overfishing of mackerel by Iceland and the Faroe Islands became a major point at today's EU Fisheries Council.

The EU Commission has been engaging with Iceland on the possible resumption of mackerel management negotiations. These talks aim at agreeing shares of the total allowable mackerel catch between the EU, Norway, the Faroe Islands and Iceland. Minister Coveney insisted that the Commission should only agree a resolution to this issue which would not be damaging to Ireland's mackerel interests. It is imperative that the Commission take greater account of Ireland's dependence on mackerel fishing.

Traditionally Iceland has had no dependency on this stock and has not been part of a joint management and sharing arrangement but in 2011 landed some 23% of the recommended allowable catch. International scientific evidence suggests that there is now a very significantly reduced abundance of mackerel in the Icelandic zone so that the levels of mackerel share being demanded cannot be supported by any biological or zonal arguments.

At the meeting of EU Ministers for Agriculture and Fisheries, Minister Coveney, while welcoming the continuing efforts being made to bring about a balanced solution, stated that "any scenario which would reward the unsustainable and opportunistic mackerel fishing by Iceland should not be supported". Mackerel has traditionally been Ireland's most important fishery, worth in the region of 120 million euro annually. Minister Coveney noted that "mackerel is the financial driver of our pelagic catching and processing industries. We have worked at EU level and with Norway to build up and sustainably manage this stock. I cannot justify a situation where Iceland and the Faroes could each end up with a disproportionate share of the mackerel stock, unjustified by scientific evidence or historic catches". The Minister went on to say that "a deal with Iceland alone will not save the stocks but could result in the permanent loss of EU jobs and economic activity in remote coastal areas and it is for those reasons that I am urging the Commission to agree a solution which will prevent this happening".

On a separate point, Minister Coveney made it clear to the Council that he would not support the commission's proposal to set quotas for the first time for sea bass, unless this took full account of the fact that Ireland has prohibited commercial sea bass fishing for almost two decades.

#FISHING - Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM) has announced a "substantial delay" before it publishes the licence application for the controversial proposed deep-sea fish farm in the Aran Islands, as Galway Bay FM reports.

Though publication was originally planned for the beginning of this month, BIM says it will be another four to six weeks before it will be made available, following "meaningful and informative feedback" from the public during the most recent round of consultations on the project.

As previously reported on Afloat.ie, the 15,000-tonne organic salmon farm would be located off Inis Oírr on a 500-hectare site in Galway Bay, and would be one of the largest of its kind in Europe, projected to be worth €103 million annually for the economy.

Approval of the project could see the creation of as many as 400 jobs.

But the scheme has faced opposition from local anglers who fear that the fish farm could have a detrimental effect on wild salmon numbers.

Noel Carr, secretary of the Federation of Irish Salmon and Sea Trout Anglers (FISTA), described the fish farm plans as his group's 'Alamo'.

#FISH IRELAND EXHIBITION –Once again the premier fishing port of Killybegs, Co. Donegal is host to the Fish Ireland Exhibition (29-30 June) where the fish-catching and processing industry will be on display, writes Jehan Ashmore.

The exhibition is one of the few such shows to actually take place in the heart of a working fishery harbour. The location is also home to local leading equipment suppliers and service industries which are the main attraction to Fish Ireland.

For the last two decades the exhibition has been run every two years and is where fishermen and boat owners from all sectors - inshore, demersal, shellfish and pelagic meet exhibitors. The range of exhibitors covers products and services which allow for new technologies and to develop more sustainable and environmentally methods in friendly fishing techniques.

Added to the venue's apt setting on the main pier is where some of the nation's largest trawlers moor alongside 'Mediterranean' style, i.e. the sterns of the vessels berth at right-angles to the quayside. The berthing practice allows more vessels to be accommodated along the quayside as they moor parallel to each other.

#FISHING - A Donegal firm that leases fishing boats has reached a settlement of €3.39 million with the Revenue Commissioners over its failure to declare taxes, The Irish Times reports.

The settlement by O’Shea Fishing Ltd in Killybegs, which arises from the undeclaration of corporation tax, PRSI, and PAYE, is the largest on the quarterly list of tax defaulters published by Revenue earlier this week.

Second on the list is the settlement for €2.133 million for undeclared VAT on apartment sales by the construction firm owned by independent TD Mick Wallace.

The Irish Times has more on the story HERE.