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Stars of the County Down

Wednesday, 28 April 2010

During the course of a reporters working day its seldom that we're greeted by smiling faces, never mind the smiling face of a very beautiful seven year old girl.
This beaming face is however one half of the reason Davey Hill, Chairman of the National Federation of Fishermen's Organisations (NFFO) gets out of bed in the mornings. The other half is another equally beautiful little girl who's 12 years old.
Together Davey and his two daughters Emily and Courtney, live on the edge of the bustling fishing village of Kilkeel.
Davey, is currently chairman, and soon to become president of the organisation which he has been part of for almost 25 years. An nationwide organisation and big brother to its local counterpart-ANIFPO.
For anyone who has lifted a newspaper over the last few years can't have escaped the fact, now is a financially crucifying and equally uncertain time for workers in the fishing industry-and they need straight talking representatives more than ever if they are to take on the bureaucracy of the EU and win.
45 year old Belfast born Davey Hill, is one such representative. Davey, says he prefers to be a proactive chair, a working foreman if you like. He makes his presence felt at a lot of UK and European based meetings with important ministers.
At first, he gives the impression of someone who has lived in the town all their life as he is fluent in the use of the Kilkeel dialect. It therefore comes as a surprise to learn that Davey was brought up in East Belfast and went to school there.
Nevertheless, there appears to be generations of seafaring blood running through his veins. Davey, describes a childhood were most of his school holidays were spent visiting his father's uncle, Captain Vance, who lived in the harbour town. And it was during these long hot summers of the late 1970's that Davey got a taste for fishing herring along the coast line.
Fishing became a passion and a way of life from that point onwards, and its this passion for a trade which he learned as an apprentice on board the Lupina, and were he spent those formative years as, at first a cook, and then to mending, splicing and watchkeeping, and is just one of two reasons why he graces this weeks column of Stars of the County Down.
Davey, recalls these were the halcyon days for the fishing industry. He describes that a fisherman who put the hours in, was able to earn enough money to pay for most commodities in hard cash. A world away from today's reality.
When Davey was 21, he sat his skippers ticket which entitles you to skipper a boat. His first boat was Westerdale, and he and his six man crew, happily fished for white fish and prawns around the North coast of Scottish Highlands. He doesn't mind admitting they were a very lucrative nine years. However, he would clock up around 46 weeks a year at sea, in order to make it pay so handsomely, and the stretches would include 24/7 shifts with little time for proper sleep. He describes fishing is a job very few people want to do. But the difference he says, between fishing now and fishing then, is the reward.
This hands-on experience gives him a much deeper insight into the needs and worries of the average worker in the industry from the skipper to the factory processor. He is one of the few people who can take this insight and run with it. Someone who can tell the EU legislators that their policies are laced with arsenic and have crippled the once booming fishing town of Kilkeel.
Today Davey and many others like him have become frustrated at their conditions. "Apart from the fuel problem," (Davey said. "And believe me fuel is a big problem. Two years ago fuel was sitting at 100 dollars a barrel, but the rate was two dollars for one pound. Now crude oil sits at around 87 dollars but the rate has dropped to 1.50 dollars to the pound, so its just as dear. ) "There is also massive restrictions imposed upon fishermen.
“I'm all for balancing fishing practices but the EU has gone too far. When you have a varied mix of species in the sea, like prawns, whitefish, cod, herring and haddock, a fisherman has to be able to take what nature has dictated. Science on the other hand, leans toward the idea of the single species, were they take one stock and quantify that. In my opinion this is unworkable.
“Fishermen, who are at sea everyday and know it like the back of their hand, suggest that there has never been as much stock of both herring and cod in our waters now. But bureaucracy decrees more restrictions, so science is not conclusive.
“Fishermen, some of who have fished the sea for over 30 years, provide their evidence ,and it's described as 'unscientific'. Yet, the EU provide scientists who take a snapshot of what conditions are like at a given moment, allegedly not so 'anecotdal' .
Davey added: "The advisory panel, ICES guide the EU in their decisions. Last year, at the December council meeting, we had Northern Irish independent scientists on board, we had the Northern Irish Minister on board, and we had the UK Minister on board, stating that the EU should increase the fishing quotas. Instead Brussels said we don't agree and turned round and cut them. Even the independent scientist were dismayed at what was going on."
Meanwhile the Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK fall deeper into recession and Davey despairs at the current crisis. He continues: "I listen to an awful lot of bureaucratic talk some of the time and sit, shake my head and think no wonder we're no further on. Our representatives here are thankfully very good. I attend these meetings to try and humanise it as much as I can. But I have told a lot of people within the industry, there is not enough fishermen at the table to put forward a very straightforward and no nonsense point across."
There is no doubt the fishing industry has taken a hammering over the last decade. Statistics show that UK based fishermen have lost 90 percent of their quota and 90 per cent of their white fishing fleet. Davey recalls in 2000 Kilkeel had 38 white fish trawlers fishing out of their harbour, today there is only four. Davey adds: "The lorries that used to bring the fish out of here, now bring frozen fish in. We are heavy importers of cod which means it also carries a heavy carbon footprint. "
Davey emphasises that Kilkeel cod was one of the most highly valued fish in the United Kingdom, for quality, taste and yeild. It was widely reported that there was 30 per cent more yeild with Kilkeel fish, being one of the best products on the market.
Davey agrees, he said: "Now that the cycle of cod has tipped back again we still have no entitlement to land. And if we do, we get penalised like the Charlie McBride's of this world.
It's at this point Davey's integrity becomes obvious. When I asked him about the highlights of his Chairmanship with the NFFO, his simple response was clear. "Everyday I represent the fishermen is a highlight for me."
However, it would be hard to forget the recent dinner at Stormont which he hosted with his local clan here and were he was able to introduce this clan to the nationwide executives. "Yeah, that was a memorable occasion I won't be forgetting any time soon.
Davey also explains he's going to take each day as it comes. His future presidency with the organisation will be a voluntary position, as was his chairmanship. Apart from a fairly meagre allowance he receives, Davey explains he does it because he feels its worthwhile.
Davey adds: "After the boom years I feel its only right to put something back into the industry again. It's not a gravy train we're on at least that's the way I see it.
However, their is another extraordinary thing about Davey Hill. Since loosing his wife Ashley, a few years back, he somehow manages to juggle this career, bring up his two very beautiful little girls and run a home, as well as any woman could.
Given today's society were women appear to have a monopoly on dual responsibilities, this fact takes some beating - a man who can multi task! And this is the other reason we mentioned earlier why he graces this week's column of Stars of the County Down.

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