News & Updates

Originally posted by Whale Watch Skipper and former commercial fisherman Colin Barnes on the Skippers Log section of his Cork Whale Watch website in November 2014

It is now mid-November, and true to the time of year, we have plenty of stormy, wet and disturbed Atlantic weather, making poor conditions for searching for and watching whales. There was just one day in the past month with perfect weather for whale watching, on November 5th, and a record number of minke whales (30+) were observed that day, in company with a large number of common dolphins under thousands of kittiwakes and…

This article was originally posted to the Cork Whale Watch Skippers Log by Colin Barnes, a long time commercial fisherman and one of Ireland’s most experienced and well respected whale watching operators in January 2014

Last January I wrote to Minister for Agriculture, Marine and Food, Simon Coveney, TD highlighting the problem of unsustainable inshore trawling for sprat off the Irish south west coast.

There is currently no quota on sprat in Irish waters, and never has been, so once trawlers have caught their quota of more commercial species like herring they are free to move inshore to catch as…

Originally published by Colin Barnes on his Cork Whale Watch “Skippers Log” in May 2018 — used here with permission from the original author.

For anyone following the discussion regarding the Irish government’s proposal to exclude large trawlers over 12 mts length fishing within 6 nautical miles of the coast, we hope that this article by Skipper Colin Barnes will help clarify, what we see as the issue, and why this exclusion goes ahead.

You might think it would be impossible to bring about the extinction of an abundant fish species, by unregulated fishing; as the assumption is that most…

Originally published by Colin Barnes on his Cork Whale Watch “Skippers Log” in October 2019 — this post gives a skippers-eye view of the fate of forage fish off the West Cork coast, from someone who’s been at the business end of the issue for decades, both as a long-time commercial fisherman and one of Ireland’s most experienced whale-watching operators.

The recent closure of the Celtic Sea herring fishery brings to the fore, the desperate plight of forage fish in Irish waters, and points clearly to the fact that stocks of both herring and sprat have been seriously overfished during…