WHY ARE THOUSANDS of endangered and protected animals drowning in fishing gear off the west coast of Ireland?

This includes grey seals, sharks, skates, dolphins and much more in legally designated ‘special areas of conservation’ or even our only marine national park, Páirc Náisiúnta na Mara, which surrounds Kerry’s Blasket Islands.

Some of the animals drowning in ‘tangle nets’, which are set to capture a lobster-like crustacean called a crayfish (sometimes a crawfish), include angel sharks and flapper skates, both of which are critically endangered, meaning there is a real chance of their total extinction, such is the pressure they are under.

Blue sharks (Prionace glauca), swimming underwater, close-up, Baltimore, County Cork, Ireland. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

The revelations come in a report from the Marine Institute, Ireland’s leading scientific body in matters related to the sea.

‘By-catch’ is the term used in the fishing industry for species which are caught in nets that are not wanted, and tangle nets, a technique that sets a loose net on the sea floor for anything up to a week and a half, has long been known for its high levels of by-catch. It is an indiscriminate death trap for any fish or sea creature that finds itself ensnared in one.

The scourge of tangle nets

This is not the first time that the Marine Institute has studied the issue of by-catch in the tangle net fishery.

In fact, in 1988, when it was first becoming a popular fishing technique, the Fine Gael TD for South Kerry, Michael Begley, told the Dáil that “this tangle net will completely destroy the shell fish industry unless the Minister introduces........

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