A teenager from Árainn Mhór is on her way Strasbourg to voice her concern over the future of pollack fishing on the island.
Muireann Kavanagh, 14, recently wrote to Minister Charlie McConalogue in relation to the closure of the pollack fishery.
She left Co Donegal on the 3.30pm ferry this afternoon for the first leg of her journey.
Muireann has been fishing pollack with her uncle for the past two seasons from a small boat using a darróg, a traditional wooden frame for holding the line and hooks to catch pollack.
In her letter, Ms Kavanagh, told the Minister: "I fish and help maintain a boat my grandfather built by himself and his friends on Arranmore Island. This boat has provided a living for my uncles, my grandfather and my grand uncle. Over the last number of years this boat has been denied her heritage. There is no way that this boat or any of the remaining boats on the Island have destroyed the fish stocks."
The closure of the fishery was based on advice from the International Council for the Exploration of the Seas (ICES)1, but the Irish Islands Marine Resource Organisation (IIMRO) producer group says it is having a disproportionate social impact on island and inshore fishing communities.
IIMRO has called for an urgent new scientific study on pollack to be carried out so that accurate and up to date stock data can be collected to properly inform fisheries management.
The organisation says the current ICES advice is based on a new stock assessment benchmark which used a flawed survey methodology that should never have been accepted.
Members say the advice has "resulted in the closure of the pollack fishery across a huge sea area from the West of Scotland to the French coast. Such a drastic and socially destructive action based on flawed data will not improve the stock or any conservation objectives".
IIMRO chairperson Jerry Early, who lives on Árainn Mhór, said that "pollack has become one of the few remaining species we were permitted to fish on our Islands".
"We cannot accept the flawed scientific data behind this fishery closure and we offer to work hand in hand with the relevant bodies to provide accurate data," he said.
Mr Early described the type of fishing Muireann and her family have been engaging in as "a highly selective and low-impact fishing method, which provides a high quality catch for sale and local consumption".
Muireann said that fishing is in her blood and she does not see why she is "being forced to stop a tradition that goes back hundreds of years in my family. It looks like my future has been decided for me by the Government and the EU".
She and her family are making the journey to Strasbourg at the invitation of Midlands North West MEP Chris MacManus.
Mr MacManus said he and Muireann will take part in a number of engagements with high-ranking MEPs who work on Regional Development and Fisheries and Muireann will make her case directly to senior EU figures at the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Wednesday.
The Sinn Féin MEP said Muireann was "leading a fight for fair play for fishing communities to ensure that they are not abandoned by EU policy making".
He said he was "committed to delivering the change that Muireann and the wider fishing community desperately need to see delivered."
