Doherty says Donegal teen ‘banned’ from catching pollock while supertrawlers ‘hoover’ up fish

Transcript

00:00 Móirin Cavanagh is a 14 year old girl. She lives on Arranmore Island off the coast of

00:05 Donegal. Her father, her grandfather, her great-grandfather were all fishermen. She

00:10 also fishes. She catches pollock from a hook and line, the lowest impact of fishing. Móirin

00:16 Cavanagh wants a future on the island, but she's been banned from fishing pollock. And

00:22 while Móirin is told by your government that what she was doing is now illegal, she watches

00:27 from her bedroom window and sees what looks like small cities. The foreign super trawlers

00:33 off the coast of her island, hoovering up thousands of tons of fish, including pollock,

00:38 which your government tell her that for them it is perfectly legal. By anyone's book

00:43 Tanisha, this is not fair. This is a young girl who just wants to fish. So Tanisha, how

00:48 do you stand over this? A 14 year old island girl banned from fishing with a hook and line

00:54 while foreign super trawlers hoover up the same fish as by-product of her island.

01:00 Thank you.

01:01 The fishery has been closed. It's been closed on scientific advice on the basis to make

01:08 sure that stocks can recover. Can you be a bit more honest in your public debate on these

01:14 issues? I mean, you presented in a certain way and you presented with a certain spin,

01:18 but are you saying we should ignore a scientific advice? Are you saying we should now enter

01:22 a new era where we just simply ignore everything that we get, all advices and just do whatever

01:28 we want and allow the stocks to be depleted and some fine day people will turn up and

01:31 there's no fish to fish? I mean, I'm advised that that fishery has been closed on scientific

01:38 advice with reducing stocks. If you close it, it recovers and people will be able to

01:43 fish sustainably into the future. That apparently is the issue. And I think that's, you know,

01:49 Thank you Tanisha.

01:50 We've got to have some agreement.