Ireland’s fishing industry has already taken “as much as it can possibly take” and says it is not about to let Russia’s Navy harm important marine life in upcoming drills.
A group of Irish fishermen plan to take a stand against the Russian Navy and disrupt their upcoming military exercises off the coast of Cork next month. Russia’s ambassador to Ireland, Yuri Filatov, has promised that the drills—which will take place about 150 miles off the coast in international waters but within Ireland’s airspace—will be only “a small exercise, maybe three or four ships, not more.” But Ireland’s fishing industry has already taken “as much as it can possibly take” and is not about to let Russia’s Navy harm important marine life, said Patrick Murphy, chief executive of the Irish South and West Fish Producers Organization. In comments to RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland, Murphy said the drills posed a threat to the “livelihood” of the whole industry and any artillery fire could drastically change the marine environment for years to come. “It’s our waters. Can you imagine if the Russians were applying to go onto the mainland of Ireland to go launching rockets, how far would they get with that?” Murphy said. He told Politico separately that fishermen would head out to the area of the military drills on Feb. 1, and “if that is in proximity to where the [military] exercise is going, we are expecting that the Russian naval services abide by the anti-collision regulations.”
