This is the worst year in a decade for the fishing industry, at a time when technology should be making the occupation a little safer. Yesterday's sinking of the St Gervase brings to 26 the number of fishing fatalities in these waters over the past 11 months.
Before this year the highest annual number of fatalities in the past decade was 1995, when 18 fishermen lost their lives off this coast.
It is just over six weeks since 20 lives were lost off Clare and Galway, when the French-registered An-Orient sank and the British-registered Spanish vessel, Arosa, ran up on rocks.
One Irishman, Mr Tomas "Tucker" Kelly, drowned, along with one Portuguese and six French sailors from the An-Orient, while three survived.
There was one Spanish survivor among the 13 Spanish, Portuguese and African crew on board the Arosa.
Ironically, one of the six Irish fishermen to die this year was Mr Sean Cotter, former owner of the St Gervase and also from Castletownbere. He was out on his own in Bantry Bay in late May when his vessel capsized close to the port.
Fishing vessels still account for about 50 per cent of all marine rescue taskings, and the pressures of dwindling stocks, rising fuel prices and changing weather patterns have not made it any less hazardous - in spite of technological improvements in navigation, communications and fish-finding.
Such improvements include the new Global Maritime Distress and Safety System, which require VHF and MF/HF radios to be fitted with Digital Selective Calling (DSC) facilities.
The advantage of DSC is that it takes the "search" out of search and rescue, by sending, at the push of a red button, a distress alert with identity, precise position and nature of the vessel.
The emergency position indicating radio beacon (EPIRB) which alerted the rescue services shortly after 3 a.m. yesterday, has saved many lives, as the beacon activates on contact with water.
However, it has a certain probability of error, based on successive satellite hits, and the initial latitude/longitude given yesterday was clouded, according to Valentia Coast Radio.
Purchase of EPIRBs has been grant-aided by the Department of the Marine as part of the Government's whitefish renewal scheme.
Under the £70 million scheme, which was recommended to the previous government in a damning report, fishing vessel owners were encouraged to buy a range of safety equipment.
Almost 200 vessels availed of the safety grants to buy EPIRBs, lifejackets, buoys, liferafts, firefighting appliances, navigational devices and radio telephone communication appliances.
Some 31 new vessels were also built under the programme, which was one of the main recommendations of the 1996 report of the Fishing Vessel Safety Review Group.
However other key recommendations, including more staffing for the Marine Survey Office, and for the Department of the Marine and Natural Resources, were given less priority.
In the case of Spanish flag ships, which appear to take greater risks in bad weather than most other EU vessels, it has also been argued that the Naval Service should be empowered to carry out inspections on vessel seaworthiness. The State already has international treaty obligations in this area.
The 1996 review owes its origins to another tragedy which occurred five years ago this month - the loss of six Donegal fishermen from the Greencastle vessel, Carrickatine. Like the St Gervase, the Carrickatine was an old vessel, purchased at a time when EU restrictions on fleet size precluded new building.
Like the crew of the St Gervase, the crew of the Carrickatine left young families bereft just a few weeks before Christmas.