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Displaying items by tag: Shark Fins

The Irish Times reports that the Naval Service has detained a Spanish fishing vessel that had more than 5,000 shark fins.

Last week, the Virxen da Blanca, one of a fleet longline fishing for shark of the South West, was escorted to Castletownbere after it was boarded by a team from the LÉ William Butler Yeats, who found more than a tonne of shark fins on board.

The EU banned the removal of shark fins at sea in 2013. However, it’s being reported in the Spanish press that the boat's operators claim Irish authorities have misinterpreted the regulations over which fins may or may not be removed.

The Irish Times has more on the story HERE.

Published in Navy

The Rankin Dinghy of Cobh, Cork Harbour 

A Rankin is a traditional wooden dinghy which was built in Cobh, of which it’s believed there were 80 and of which The Rankin Dinghy Group has traced nearly half. 

The name of the Rankin dinghies is revered in Cork Harbour and particularly in the harbourside town of Cobh.

And the name of one of those boats is linked to the gunboat which fought against the Irish Volunteers during the 1916 Easter Rising and later for the emergent Irish Free State Government against anti-Treaty Forces during the Irish Civil War.

It also links the renowned boat-building Rankin family in Cobh, one of whose members crewed on the gunboat.

Maurice Kidney and Conor English are driving the restoration of the Rankin dinghies in Cork Harbour. They have discovered that Rankins were bought and sailed in several parts of the country.