‘Everyone thinks we’re nuts allowing seas to be raided’
One of the country’s leading fishmongers believes “everyone in Europe thinks we’re nuts” for allowing our waters to be plundered by foreign trawlers while Irish fishermen are restricted in what they can catch, writes Pat Flanagan.
Stefan Griesbach, owner of Gannet Fishmongers, said it is incredible that we, as an island nation, import 80% of our fish.
The Parisian-born master fishmonger, who set up his business in 2004, also revealed he will not allow his teenage son to take over as the fish will soon not be there.
The fishmonger in Galway, which carries the widest range of fish and seafood in the country, said many problems afflicting the industry are down to Irish people’s conservative tastes when it comes to fish, with many refusing to eat anything but cod and hake.
“The Irish fishing industry is in massive trouble from when I started 20 years ago,” he said.
“My biggest problem was not to buy too much fish, now we’re struggling to find what we need.”
Mr Griesbach used to sell wholesale to restaurants but switched to retail-only eight years ago as it was “getting harder to get fish”.
“We stuck to Irish fish which are getting harder to get,” he told RTÉ’s CountryWide.
“The reality is 80% is imported, be it sea bass, salmon or cod.”
He said: “We export our best fish because we get better prices and we cannot sell them in Ireland because the customers are a little bit conservative,” he said.
“People have some expectations... if they want cod or hake and if there’s no local cod or hake. You might have hake coming all the way from Namibia.
“Imagine flying silver hake from Namibia to Spain and it comes by freight to Ireland. It’s insane and then people in Namibia can’t purchase those fish because we’re putting pressure on the price.
“My son who is now 17 and working with us will not be taking over the business. I said to him to look for something else.
“The fish will not be there. We are at the end of the line.”
While stocks of some species in Irish waters are dangerously low, there are plenty of bluefin tuna – but Ireland does not have a quota to catch a single fish.
Mr Griesbach added: “Ironically, Irish waters are full of bluefin tuna, but Ireland does not have a bluefin tuna quota because we never asked for one.
“The UK looked for one when it was part of the EU and now they have a 50-tonne bluefin tuna quota and a burgeoning bluefin tuna fishery. We’re looking at them from Ireland and [can] see them jumping in the water and all the tuna we eat in Ireland is coming from the Indian Ocean.
“Japanese boats are fishing off Ireland, they’re 80 km out and we can’t get fish that are swimming in our own water. Everybody in Europe thinks we’re nuts.”
In recent months, fishing representatives have said the loss of one third of Ireland’s national fish quota in 2026 means they are facing their toughest year ever.
Irish MEP Cynthia Ní Mhurchú and industry leaders are demanding urgent reform to the EU’s CFP, citing quota imbalances and coastal dependence.
Irish MEP Cynthia Ní Mhurchú and industry leaders are demanding urgent reform to the EU’s CFP, citing quota imbalances and coastal dependence. Photo: Leah Farrell/© RollingNews.ie
Ms Ní Mhurchú claimed the industry could collapse unless quotas are restored.
Last year EU quota cuts that slashed 57,000 tonnes off the Irish catch threatened coastal communities with up to €200m in annual losses and thousands of job losses.
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