Take 70 fishermen, 13 vessels, two sets of satellites, and 1,000 square miles of sea. Despite the technology and the expertise, the albacore tuna is able to outwit them all, according to preliminary results from a new marine research project off the south-west coast.
The £1.8 million project, which began several weeks ago, aims to develop alternative catching methods for the nascent Irish tuna fishery, currently worth about £3 million. Co-ordinated by Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM) with the Marine Institute's involvement, the project has been sponsored by the European Commission to compensate for the ban which it imposed in June on the use of driftnets for catching tuna.
The ban drew an angry reaction from both Irish and British tuna fleets, given that the scientific basis for the decision is questionable. There is no conclusive evidence that the gear is harmful to dolphins and other cetaceans, and fishermen's leaders accused the EU of bowing to an "unholy alliance" of environmentalists and Spanish interests who wanted to keep the fishery, and its market, to themselves. Curiously, the ruling, which takes effect from January 1st, 2002, was agreed before work on alternative methods had been initiated by the EU.
The two-year research programme has been commissioned to try out two different methods of snaring the fish - pair trawls and by trolls - on grounds as far south as the Bay of Biscay, 600 miles away.
Pair pelagic trawling is already very familiar in the north-west, with the Killybegs fleet earning a European-wide reputation in this method as applied to mackerel, herring and horse mackerel. Ten boats in the 13-strong fleet on charter are engaged in this fishery, while three vessels have been testing out trolling - a labour-intensive passive fishing method developed by the Spanish.
Rigged with midwater trawls made by Irish netmakers, each vessel in a pair tows one side of the net using two warps connected to bridles. The vessels maintain a distance apart equivalent to half a warp length, and the warp depth ratio is normally about 7:1, with adjustments.
As Mr Fergal Nolan of BIM explains, trolling is more suitable for smaller, 50 to 60-foot boats, and involves towing lures through the sea. Up to 13 lines can be towed behind the vessel from long outriggers. Whereas the Spaniards use large crews, the Irish skippers are using automatic trolling machines.
Trawled fish is sold to canneries, while the line-caught fish can be sold on the fresh retail market - if handled carefully. The white flesh of the albacore tuna is very popular on the French market, where it is sold as "thon blanc", but overall the prices are nothing like those secured for the lucrative bluefin chased by the Japanese. Still, the one big advantage is that it is not subject to quota - yet - and Ireland will be anxious to show that is has a record, when and if quotas are imposed.
BIM has engaged several French skippers to act as advisers on the programme, while the Marine Institute has provided observers to carry out biological monitoring and employ satellite imagery. The restless, migratory and temperature-sensitive tuna tends to feed in plankton-rich grounds where warm and cold waters meet, and satellites can be used to identify these regions of high primary productivity, and save on steaming time.
Two sets of satellite data are being made use of: the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) data supplied by the US National Ocean and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA), and information from the Sea Viewing Wide Field of View Sensor (SEAWIFS), which returns images twice daily. Obviously, information gleaned by the Naval Service on tuna fleet movements, through its Geographical Information System (GIS), would be very useful, but would be regarded as too sensitive to pass on to scientists, according to Mr Nolan.
The ultimate aim is to transmit the satellite information directly on to the vessels, enabling skippers to make their own judgments on fish movements. Given that the project is in its early stages, the focus is on use of gear. Weather has bedevilled the team involved, and north-westerly winds of the last few days will have influenced the albacore's movements.
The two-year programme will be studied closely in Castletownbere, Co Cork, where there is still considerable anger over the driftnet ban. "The weather has been bad, and it is probably too early to comment," Mr Donal O'Driscoll, chairman of the Irish South and West Fishermen's Organisation (IS&WFO), told The Irish Times. "But no matter how successful it is, nothing will replace the driftnet."
Normally, before a ban such as this would be introduced, trials would be conducted to ease the pain of change and perhaps justify the switch, he said. "The European Commission has put the cart before the horse in this case, and it is a very arrogant approach." He believes that more research should also have been carried out into the use of electronic devices to scare cetaceans away from fishing gear.