Áine Brady (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)

I am taking this matter on behalf of the Minister of State at the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy Conor Lenihan. As a species lobsters are covered under the general legislation on commercial fishing. At present there is no specific legislation dealing with recreational lobster fishing apart from a prohibition on the capturing of shell fish, including lobsters, by skin diving introduced in the 1960s. Recreational lobster fishing is not deemed to be commercial fishing. Essentially recreational lobster fishermen do not sell the lobsters they catch, but rather they keep them for their own personal consumption.

As the Senator will be aware commercial fishing for lobster is regulated and comes under the remit of the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and more specifically from an enforcement perspective, the Sea Fisheries Protection Authority. There is however, no regulation of recreational lobster fishing.

As I have indicated, recreational lobster fishing may be legitimately carried out provided the catches made by such fishermen are not sold for commercial gain. While traditionally recreational fishermen were only allowed to fish four pots, I understand that currently there are no restrictions on the amount of lobster pots that may be fished by them, as long as they do not sell their catch.

It must be stressed that recreational lobster fishing differs from unlicensed commercial lobster fishing whereby lobster catches are offered for sale. The detection of the latter is an enforcement matter for the Sea Fisheries Protection Authority. I understand the authority targets inshore fisheries in order to control unlicensed commercial lobster fishing activity.

The issues raised by Senator Ó Domhnaill are clearly important for commercial lobster fishermen who depend on such fishing for all or part of their livelihood. Careful consideration must be given to potential conflicts with commercial activity when recreational lobster fishing activity takes place on a large scale. Indeed, this would have ramifications for the sustainability of stocks as I understand lobster is a slow growing species.

It is the Minister of State's intention to bring the Senator's concerns regarding the policing and detection of what seems to be essentially unlicensed commercial lobster fishing to the attention of his counterpart, the Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. The Minister of State does not believe the creation of yet another regulatory framework in this instance to deal with recreational lobster fishing is the most appropriate way to deal with the issues raised.