"Just surprised at the apparent lack of media interest. It was widely reported when the law jumped on Killybegs etc and grabbed a pile of records.
If you search RTE's news site, you'd swear there had been no reports of illegal fishing since September 2004 - or indeed anything much to do with the fishing industry in general - apart from the ?45m scheme.
But if you search around a bit you could find stuff like this
below, which realy makes you wonder. Maybe there's some media blackout here as a result of ongoing criminal investigation?
http://archives.tcm.ie/businesspost/2004/10/03/story185364727.asp
MVF Veronica II, the controversial supertrawler owned by Donegal millionaire, Kevin McHugh, has been banned from fishing in African waters. The move has placed more pressure on McHugh to secure an Australian fishing licence, despite widespread objections from lobby groups in Australia.
http://www.underwatertimes.com/forum/vi ... php?p=1276
The Irish fishing magnate Kevin McHugh appears to have given up attempts to get his super trawler Veronica into Australian waters.
The vessel, bigger than a football field and credited with killing more fish than any other boat in the world, is for sale after being refused entry into Australia last year because of concerns about its potential impact on fish stocks.
http://www.worldseafishing.com/forums/s ... hp?t=11174
David Findlay
WSF Regular Poster
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Australia
Posts: 58
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Not sure if the pro's over your way have completely fished the waters out, but a few months back we had a big stink over here when an Irish fishing concern tried to rock up and fish our waters with the so called ""super trawlers""
About 10 times bigger than anything over here and seemingly quite capable of strip mining the waters of any thing that swum.
Unions over here refused to service/resupply/refuel this bloody monster so they packed up and left. Please don't send anymore!
http://www.boatingoz.com.au/news04/0913.htm
The Irish fishing tsar Kevin McHugh is understood to have paid $1.6 million - five times the market value - for a licence to fish in Australian waters with his controversial super trawler Veronica.
Just why Mr McHugh paid so much for a licence is a mystery. The same licence was sold for just $295,000 a few months before being advertised publicly and traded through a Melbourne broker.
The last I heard, the boat is for sale with a New Zealand broker. Here's a few highlights from some of the articles listed above...
Veronica, named after McHugh's wife, was previously based in the Canary Islands. It lost its licence to fish off the coast of Mauritania in northwest Africa last month after local communities lobbied against government deals with foreign fishing companies.
The boat is also barred from fishing in European waters.
The vessel, and its mostly Australian crew, is now docked in Cape Town, South Africa and is waiting to continue on to Australia.
Supertrawlers represent 1 per cent of the world's fishing fleet. They employ 2 per cent of the world's fishermen and are responsible for 50 per cent of fish caught in the world.
"