Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am on fisheries matters. I appreciate the insight that Deputy Ferris brings to the matter. I also appreciate that for inshore fisheries, this is a particular issue. The Deputy's photograph showed three from ten boxes being affected, which concurs with the statistics that we have. There was a BIM survey in 2015 that showed damage to catches caused by seals ranging from 59% of monkfish to 18% of pollock and 10% of hake catches over the course of 12 months of extensive onboard observations on inshore and offshore vessels.

That is approximately a third of catches, which is a very significant loss of effort by fishermen who, in the best of times, are never on the pig's back economically speaking.

This is an issue. The challenge for us in trying to deal with it is to bring together all the stakeholders, in particular the NGOs, which are particularly active in this area and which serve a very important function in the context of conservation. Seals are a protected species. There is provision under the Wildlife Acts, administered by the Department of Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, for culling in certain circumstances. Perhaps consideration could be given to the regional inshore fisheries fora, at which cases in locations around the countryside in respect of which there may be issues can be considered in the context of provisions under the law. As I stated, the relevant legislation is section 42 of the Wildlife Acts. However, I think it would be preferable to proceed on an agreed basis with all the relevant stakeholders. There is provision for this. Awareness of the legislation is important. Perhaps the Deputy, through his good offices, could bring the legislation to the attention of the regional inshore fisheries fora and I am sure they could pursue the matter on a collaborative basis. There are fora already in existence.

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