Fish processers warn of potential job losses due to 'over-interpretation of EU regulations'

Fish processers and producers in Killybegs, Co Donegal, are calling for urgent action to prevent the loss of 450 jobs due to what they describe as the over-interpretation of EU regulations on weighting of fish landed in the port.
The call follows an incident yesterday in which the master of a Danish vessel, The Ruth, left the port with 1,200 tonnes of blue whiting on board which should have been landed and processed at Ward Fish Exporters.
The vessel was subject to a controlled weighting of the catch, but this was to be done in a way which Kenny Ward says would have made it unfit for human consumption.
A delicate fish, it needs to be kept suspended in chilled water with minimum handling, but Mr Ward says the authorities wanted the fish de-watered which would have damaged its quality.
According to Brendan Byrne, Chief Executive Officer of the Irish Fish Processors and Exporters Association, the rules surrounding weighting of such catches were changed by the Sea Fisheries Protection Agency without advance warning.
Significantly though, he says, the rules were not changed by the EU and he sees the move as an over-interpretation of the regulations by the SFPA which, he says, will have a detrimental impact on the fishing industry here.
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