Dr. Ellen Pikitch:

I must apologise for not being an expert on your local waters. I cannot really answer that specific question but I can give some examples from the United States which might be pertinent. The blunt answer to the question is, 'it depends'. I know people do not like those kinds of answers but that is the truth. If there is a forage fish that lives very close to shore and the species that feed upon it also live very close to shore, then it could be done within Irish waters, for example. In the United States we tend to look at it in terms of within state waters, federal waters or the exclusive economic zone, EEZ. Populations of menhaden, or bunker, an important group of fish, are managed by the individual states because they only go out to about three miles off shore. I do not know what the limits are here in terms of miles off shore.