£50m Irish craft will not trawl in EU waters

Kevin McHugh, the Achill islander who has commissioned Europe's largest fishing vessel, is due to take delivery of the £50 million craft within the next fortnight. Built in Norway, the 144-metre Atlantic Dawn has been carrying out sea trials in preparation for its steam back to the Donegal fishing port of Killybegs.

The ship is said to have the world's largest catch capacity, with holds equipped to carry around 7,000 tonnes of fish - enough to give meals to over 18 million people. However, under EU regulations, it will not fish in Irish or European waters, as the licensing agreement decrees that it work in international and "third-country" waters - non-EU states which have an agreement with the EU.

As the first serious venture by an Irish deep-sea fishing vessel in the south Atlantic, west Africa will be its target, beginning with Mauritania, where it will catch sardinella, mackerel and horse mackerel, according to its owners.

Fish will be marketed along with that caught by the Veronica, the 106-m freezer midwater trawler run by Mr McHugh for the past six years.

The Atlantic Dawn is a leviathan, as it is half as big again as the Veronica. It is the largest and most powerful freezer stern trawler being built this year. Kevin McHugh's son, Carl, who is marketing manager with Atlantic Dawn Ltd, says agreement has been reached with the European Commission on the licence for the vessel, which will have a crew of over 50.

Average trip length will be four to five weeks, and the combined main and auxiliary engines of 28,730 horsepower, and winch pull of 105 tonnes, afford it the scope to work worldwide.

It will be equipped for both purse-seining and midwater trawling. All of the catch will be chilled immediately, graded and frozen in the vessel's on-board factory, and the seafood will then be shipped or landed directly into west African markets.

Designed by Vik-Sandvik, the Norwegian company which was also involved in Mr McHugh's two previous supertrawlers - both called Veronica - the vessel is not only long but wide, at 24.3m. This is to accommodate its factory, equipped with plate freezers.

Mr McHugh has over 30 years' fishing experience. Whereas previous commissions were bankrolled by Norwegian financial institutions, as part of State policy to support shipyards Mr McHugh's financial package has been put together exclusively by Irish banks, headed by Bank of Ireland and co-funded by Anglo Irish Bank, IIB Bank and Ulster Bank Markets.

It has no EU or State involvement, but Bord Iascaigh Mhara supported Mr McHugh in his early days as a fisherman and potential vessel owner.

Mr McHugh will skipper the vessel until teething problems are sorted out. First port of call on the way home will be the Netherlands, to pick up massive trawls.

Two Killybegs companies, Gundry's and Swan Net, have also supplied catching gear. Barry Electronics of Killybegs has fitted out the wheelhouse electronics, under a contract quoted at just over $1 million.

Originally from Bullsmouth on Achill, Kevin McHugh is the son of an electrician. He is one of a generation of young fishermen identified by Bord Iascaigh Mhara in the 1960s at a time when, after years of neglect, the State had begun to take an interest in marine resources.

In the mid-1960s, he set off on a trip to Iceland to learn more. That island's fish-based economy inspired him to stick with it, and he gained his skipper's certificate. In 1968 he bought his first boat, the 65 ft Wavecrest. He was 21.

Eight years later, he was proud owner of his own steel vessel, the Albacore, which he partly designed at a cost of £1.2 million.

It was the closure of the Irish herring fishery that prompted him to move to Killybegs to concentrate on mackerel fishing off the Scottish and Irish coasts.

At the time, mackerel was the new quarry - able to swim at almost 50 km.p.h. and to do so undetected, due to the lack of an air sac.

A Norwegian company's invention of an echo sounder to track it, and the fact that a market for the protein fish had developed, made it potentially lucrative, and initially it was not subject to quota. In the past few years, however, quotas have tightened and margins have narrowed for the highly successful Killybegs fleet.

The EU's third-country arrangements, funded by over one-third of the fishery budget, have come in for criticism from environmental groups.

However, Mr McHugh is unhappy with the perception that such powerful ships pose a threat to world fish stocks, and has been keen to stress that the Atlantic Dawn's focus is on top-quality fish for third world countries at the lowest possible price, rather than on industrial fishing.

"Where we will be working, off Mauritania, there are strict controls and very strict arrangements, whereby we must take a certain number of Mauritanian fishermen on board, and an observer.

"They like to see us coming, because we are paying for our investment and there is a direct return to that state," Mr McHugh told this newspaper earlier this year. The EU's agreement is designed to ensure that there are mutual benefits, he says.

The vessel may take in Dublin en route to Killybegs, if time permits, where there will be photocalls with the investors and the Minister for the Marine and Natural Resources, Mr Fahey.

The Minister flew to Norway to "launch" the hull in February, shortly after taking office. A rift has developed recently between the Minister and the Killybegs sector over a change in policy in relation to the mackerel/herring fleet.