Fisheries to be sold under radical plan?
By: Denis Daly

The Government appears set to sell off the valuable Moy Fishery (Ridge Pool and Catheral Beat) and to dispose of other publicly owned fisheries to private interests or voluntary groups under a controversial plan adopted last week.
The full extent of the consultants report on the review of inland fisheries had been totally missed by commentators and oppposition politicians in the blare of publicity over the abolition of the Regional Fisheries Boards.
What has been missed is that consultants FGK, of which Mr Pierce Farrell, owner of the Ice House in Ballina, is a principal, have advocated a raw economic model for the fisheries sector that will transform it completely and that will have serious implications for the Ballina area that depends so much on the Moy and angling tourism.
The report says there is a need to consider how best to extract the State from over-involvement in inappropriate roles and functions and how best to strengthen the involvement of local interests in the areas of ownership and management of fisheries at local level.
The report is littered with economic jargon about introducing market forces to the fisheries sector and transferring greater levels of authority, responsibility and accountability for governance and management to local stakeholders interests at local fishery level.
The report says that the conclusion they arrive at “from our analysis of the market failure arguments” is that the State's role in inland fisheries should focus mainly on protection and conservation.
It says that at present uncertainties over ownership of fisheries work against community groups, users and beneficiaries and that by providing certainty in this area, partly though sale of fisheries and partly through long-term leasing arrangements, incentives for investment will be generated.
One of the main recommendation is for “a radical new approach to ownership, shifting the balance in favour of community ownership. Through sale and/or long term leasing, the effective ownership of fisheries should be largely transferred to community groups, users and beneficiaries etc”.
The report says “the sector is currently adversely affected by a distinct lack of market mechanisms and of user/beneficiary financial engagement and adds that there is little reliance on the pricing mechanism either in allocating resources or in reflecting relative values.

Source:
Western People, November 2005