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To: Minister of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue

Ban mega-trawlers from Irish coasts

Ban huge supertrawlers from causing destruction to sea life and marine mammals off the coast of Ireland.

Why is this important?

One of these giant fishing vessels has been seen less than 40 nautical miles off the coast of Ireland in the past week - the FV Margiris has been called the 'Death Star of the Ocean' and can land up to 250 tonnes of fish a day, 14 times what a regular Irish trawler might take, while often leaving tonnes of unwanted 'by-catch', marine life including marine mammals, dead in its wake.
The vessel has already been banned from Australian waters - is undoubtedly causing untold damage to marine life off Ireland’s coast.
In February of last year, French authorities launched an investigation after pictures of a huge 'carpet' of dead fish left behind the FV Margiris caused international condemnation from environmental groups. Up to 100,000 dead by-catch from the huge ship, were left floating in the water and it led to calls for the ship to be banned from French waters.

The mega trawler - the second largest of her type in the world, is banned from some international waters, where countries have decided the cost of these types of factory fishing operations is just too high.

https://www.independent.ie/news/environment/alarm-for-marine-life-and-local-fishing-crews-as-monster-super-trawler-fishes-in-irish-waters-for-a-third-day-42388536.html

https://afloat.ie/port-news/fishing/item/58163-controversial-supertrawler-margiris-currently-fishing-off-irish-coast

https://mobile.twitter.com/TrawlWatch_EU

Category

Updates

2023-05-03 11:39:17 +0100

100 signatures reached

2023-03-16 21:35:31 +0000

50 signatures reached

2023-03-16 17:19:32 +0000

25 signatures reached

2023-03-16 16:28:08 +0000

10 signatures reached