Aran’s Future Fishermen!

Sixteen second level students from the Aran Islands were today (Friday 22 July 2011) presented with their FETAC-accredited certificates following the successful completion of a course in Navigation and Net Mending. The course is aimed at teenagers from 14 to 15 and gives them a solid grounding in the many skills and techniques required to become involved in commercial fishing. The course has been delivered locally in both Rosmuc and Inis Mór for over fifty years.

The course is run by County Galway VEC in conjunction with Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM), the Irish Sea Fisheries Board and Údarás na Gaeltachta. It covers a range of subjects over the four weeks from navigation, net mending, boat construction, marine engineering, radio communications and food preparations – everything a novice deckhand might need to know!

Attending the awards ceremony, Captain Jimmy Hegarty, Principal of the National Fisheries College in Greencastle, Co Donegal  presented the students with their certificates and congratulated each of them on their achievement.

According to BIM, the Seafood Development Agency, the indigenous seafood sector in Ireland currently contributes more than €700 million per annum to our economy and employs more than 1,300 people in the Galway area alone.