"We expected a catastrophe and now we have just got a disaster." The words of the Northern Irish fishermen's representative, Mr Dick James, en route back to Co Down from Brussels after this week's EU fisheries council.
The severe cuts imposed on Irish Sea catches may have devastating effects on all east coast fleets, industry representatives said, while the south-west will also feel the impact. One compensation for reduced landings may be higher fish prices, and so may provide "long-term gain", according to Bord Iascaigh Mhara.
By contrast the north-west, which is very dependent on fishing, has not fared so badly. The 12 per cent increase secured for mackerel, and more favourable quotas for blue whiting and horse mackerel have been welcomed by Mr Joey Murrin of the Killybegs Fishermen's Organisation.
Whitefish cuts in his area were "reasonable", he said, and the Minister for the Marine and Natural Resources, Dr Woods, and his team "gave it 100 per cent".
"We are into a survival situation, this was expected, and it is up to us in the industry now to push for radical conservation measures," Mr Murrin said yesterday. Strict controls on mackerel landings over the past three years have already let stock recover, he pointed out.
The Connacht-Ulster MEP, Mr Pat the Cope Gallagher, echoed this view, saying that while he was "naturally disappointed" with the outcome, he was "relieved that the Minister convinced the EU Commission that cuts should not be as steep as proposed".
Observers said the Irish Sea fleet had been "savaged", with a 62 per cent cut in cod and slashed quotas for whiting, haddock and hake. A 9 per cent cut in prawns aroused ire, particularly among Northern fishermen. It was "totally unjustified" according to Mr James, who said the scientists' view of this stock was optimistic.
"However, the European Commission decided to cut anyway, because Ireland and France were not catching their full quotas there," he claimed. "It proves the farce of the quota system, where you are damned if you do and damned if you don't."
East coast industry representatives have called for a financial package for skippers and crew while vessels are tied up, if temporary closures are agreed in the recovery plan for the Irish Sea. Dr Woods and his Northern counterpart, Ms Brid Rodgers, proposed the plan, with support from Britain. Yesterday the Minister said financial compensation would have to be looked at.
In the State's largest whitefish port, Castletownbere, Co Cork, there will be concern about cuts in three key whitefish species - 14 per cent in monkfish, 20 per cent in megrim and 16 per cent in cod. "But we travelled out here facing 40 per cent drops," Mr Liam Whooley of the South and West Fisheries Producers Organisation said. "One doesn't need to be a genius to see that there is a stock problem."
His organisation believes this quota system is not the answer, and has called for an overhaul of the EU Common Fisheries Policy. It believes technical conservation measures, like those proposed for the Irish Sea, should be the way stocks under pressure could recover. It has hosted several meetings with French, Spanish, Belgian and British fishing representatives to come up with agreed management plans.
The Killybegs organisation has agreed on a new approach, but also stresses the need for improved surveillance. Satellite monitoring for vessels over 24 m long is to be introduced in EU waters next year, and will be carried out here by the Naval Service.
Mr Murrin also wants observers on board to observe discards.