Unfortunately, the number of fish in Irish waters has been getting less and less. One factor contributing to this is over-fishing, where too many adult fish are being taken out of the sea resulting in fewer young fish being born.
The Irish Sea Fisheries Board is doing a lot of work for marine conservation. They help fishermen to find new ways of fishing that is better for the environment. For example, to try to conserve cod in the sea, fishermen are only allowed to fish for cod at certain times of the year.
Another way fishermen try to help marine conservation is by using different nets. Fishermen used to catch all kinds of fish that they didn’t really want. However, new nets allow the unwanted fish to swim away because the holes in the nets are bigger. Sometimes there are small escape panels that the fish can swim through!
Fishing nets
No fisherman wants to catch a dolphin of a whale or a porpoise. To stop these mammals from getting caught and stuck in their fishing nets, they use a ‘pinger’. This might sound like a strange word, but the idea is very clever!
When any of these mammals are in the water where men are fishing, the pinger makes a sound. To theses mammals, this is the sound of danger and they swim away from the boat to safety.