Dr. Alyne Elizabeth Delaney:

Communities are living communities and culture always relates to the times. When we consider traditional activities such as fishing, we discover that 200 years ago the equipment and methods used and the species caught were different. People do not understand that what they consider to be traditional activities have changed, perhaps even in the past 50 years. The key aspect is to retain a broader view and to try not to pigeonhole people into using one specific method or way. It is more a case of people trying to secure access to resources and to live through that access.

In the context of the Deputy's point regarding the transition from traditional to alternative methods, there are some opportunities in this regard through the new fisheries local access groups, FLAGs, of which there are six in Ireland.