Can a Circular Economy lead Irish Fishing to a Sustainable Future?

The concept of the circular economy has risen in popularity in recent years as an antidote to the phenomenon of Fast Fashion, which is often criticised for its exploitative production practices and high levels of pollution.

This is especially the case with young people, who use apps such as Depop to buy and sell upcycled and second-hand or “preloved” clothing. Sustainably is now a core value for many who love fashion but can no longer ignore the negative environmental impact of the industry is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore.

A similar revolution has started to take place in a very different industry, the fishing industry. Blue Circular Economy (BCE) an initiative co-funded by the EU Interreg Northern Periphery and Artic Programme, covers the waters surrounding Norway, Greenland, The United Kingdom, and Ireland. Its aim is to boost the market reach of small and medium sized businesses who offer products and services created from recycled fishing gear and associated plastic waste.

The initiative builds on the work of the previous Circular Ocean project, which operated from 2015 to 2018.The project’s lead partner is Norway’s Norges Teknisk-Naturvitenskapelige Universitet, with its Irish partner being the Western Development Commission, based in Ballaghaderreen, Co, Roscommon.

Blue Circular Economy has organised webinars since 2019 (using Zoom before it was cool!) to inform SMEs about products, services, and other supports available to both tackle the issue of fishing nets and other plastics in the oceans and provide them with the skills to commercialise it.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature believe that over 8 million tons of plastic enters the world’s oceans every year, making up 80% of all marine debris. Plastic pollution threatens everything from tourism to food safety and climate change. Ireland’s territorial waters are ten times the size of the country’s land area, making the issue of marine pollution particularly relevant.

(Image: WWF)

Ciarán O’Driscoll, a policy and research officer at European Movement Ireland, an NGO which promotes connection between Ireland and EU institutions, who has extensively researched marine policy, believes that it is important for the EU to play a role in finding sustainable solutions for the marine and agricultural industries in the fight against climate change.

“The EU can be the vehicle for change that can bring Member States to targets, which they probably wouldn't achieve on their own in some cases. So, when it comes to the marine, there’s no big wall between France and Ireland that stops fish or litter or whatever else coming through, and so in many cases, particularly with climate change, it's a cross boundary or cross border issue that relies on cooperation across Member States.”

O’Driscoll sees the EU as having a supporting role, by co-ordinating with organisations and stakeholders in the process to ensure all Member states meet the agreed targets to reduce marine pollution.

“It's for the benefit of all of us because cleaner seas benefit everyone.”

However, climate activists argue that initiatives such as the Blue Circular Economy, or the European Green New Deal, do not go far enough to prevent climate change. Professor Alex Rogers, a science director at Ocean Rev, told the Irish Examiner:

“We need a healthy and productive ocean, and ending overfishing is key. This is especially the case when faced with the effects of climate disruption, which affects the whole ocean, including fish stocks themselves.”

An EU investigation into Ireland’s application of Common Fisheries Policy rules found that systems for ensuring compliance were “unsatisfactory”. Sanctions include tens of thousands of fish being deducted from the Irish quota, as well as the State possibly losing out on up to €40 million in funding.

But O’Driscoll believes that there is an imbalance against the average fisherman in the debate about overfishing in Ireland. He argues that Supertrawlers are the main cause of overfishing, of which there are few within the Irish fleet and those that do fish in Irish waters often come from mainland Europe.

“Small scale fisheries have the least impact on the environment in terms of stocks but have a greater impact on socioeconomic issues.”

The Irish fishing industry is also set to bare the brunt of new restrictions caused by the post-Brexit trade deal between the EU and the United Kingdom, which sees the EU handing back 25% of the value of fish stocks caught by their boats in UK waters.

Ultimately, O’Driscoll does see a sustainable future for Irish fishing with initiatives such as the Blue Circular Economy playing a key part in it. While previous policy regarding overfishing was seen as being “designed for failure”, he points to the review of the Common Fisheries Policy in 2013 as “putting sustainability and environmentalism on an equal footing” within its framework. This, he says, has brought about a slow rise in the number of stocks that were overfished.

“They [fish] are a sustainable resource when they are fished sustainably”

*This article was written for the European Commission's "Youth4Regions" programme for aspiring journalists