The herring fisheries on the South and South-West coasts 1977-78

Abstract

Herring fishing off the south coast, in that area now commonly known as the Celtic Sea, was prohibited during most of the year commencing 1 April 1977. In spite of this, however, nearly 3,000 tans of adult herring are believed to have been taken, mainly by Irish and Dutch vessels. Scientific investigations and the results obtained from a trawling survey carried out from September 1977 to January 1978 indicated that the spawning stock is still in a very depleted condition. Recruitment of young herring to the adults stocks during the last three years has been critically low and because the adult stock size is now estimated to be only 10,000 tons a continuation of the existing ban on fishing must be envisaged for some time. The fishery off the south west coast in 1977, showed an increase in landings largely due to increased catches in November off Fenit, Co Kerry.