ON THE eve of European Fish Week, Minister for the Marine Simon Coveney has approved State aid for a seafood processing initiative which is expected to create 158 new jobs.
The aid of €1.7 million has been approved as part of a total €7.4 million investment in seafood processing, Mr Coveney said in Killybegs, Co Donegal, yesterday.
AtlanFish in Donegal, Rockabill Shellfish in Dublin and Fastnet Mussels in Cork are among the companies targeted for the coastal initiative which is forecast to create 158 jobs.
The Minister also published a separate new jobs plan for Killybegs port which could create an additional 250 jobs in the area by 2014.
It arose as a result of an economic study for the European Commission which assessed the status, development and potential diversification of Killybegs as a fisheries-dependent community.
A “focused expert group” is to identify a series of opportunities in what was the largest Irish seafood port on the west coast, which has been hit by EU quota restrictions.
Fishing for Jobs campaign spokesman John Shine, who has spent a number of years trying to set up a seafood delicatessen business in Killybegs, said Mr Coveney’s department was not interested in job creation.
He had been unable to obtain a bankable lease from the department for his plan, he pointed out, and this experience was mirrored in other ports.
Mr Coveney is due to participate in some of the events for European Fish Week, which opens today with an exhibition at the National Sealife Centre in Bray, Co Wicklow.
Historic archive images of fishing and photography of current commercial fishing by Alaskan fisherman and Discovery Channel Deadliest Catchphotographer Corey Arnold will be displayed at the Bray centre.
The Ocean 2012 campaign, sponsored by the Pew environmental grouping, is hosting both European Fish Week and World Oceans Day on June 8th.
There will be an exhibition and talks at the Long Room hub in Trinity College Dublin.
Mike Walker of the Pew Group said the marine environment used to be healthier, and the Ocean 2012 campaign intended to highlight how overfishing has changed this and how the EU’s Common Fisheries Policy reform was an opportunity to go “back to the future”.
“It will be about collecting stories and evidence of the past richness of our seas and fishing communities and delivering them to EU fisheries ministers with the message: ‘We want it back’,” he said.
A kayak fishing open day is to be hosted by the Irish Kayak Angling Club today.
Events at Dingle’s Mara Beo aquarium, Co Kerry, and Galway Atlantaquaria are among other European Fish Week events, involving Birdwatch Ireland, Coastwatch and the Irish Wildlife Trust.
Full programme details are available at http://ocean2012.eu/events/24-european-fish-week-2011