Cara Rawdon is the owner and skipper of the Catherine R, a 28-metre fishing trawler based in Greencastle, Co Donegal.
What is a typical day at work for you?
The boat operates 24 hours a day. The net is shot and hauled from the boat every five hours. Often when we haul, we don’t necessarily get anything so we have to go to other fishing grounds.
Quotas mean that we have to keep moving around the coast. The quota for haddock could be so small that I could end up with that on one trip out, so we have to think one step ahead all the time.
What kind of fish do you catch?
We go out for six or seven days at a time and hunt for what are called demersal species, which include whiting, haddock, cod and anything that swims along the bottom of the sea.
At sea we number each fish we catch, so when we land, people know how old it is and it doesn’t get wrongly rotated.
How do you sell what you catch?
I am part of the Foyle Fisherman’s Co-op in Greencastle in Co Donegal, which 12 of us started 25 years ago when fish was becoming a difficult sale and there were gluts in the market.
Now, before we even land, the co-op manager has sold the fish all over Europe, especially to big buyers in France and Spain. We prepare and pack the fish in eight-kilo boxes and ship them to the buyers.
Why did you become a fisherman?
There weren’t a lot of opportunities in the north of Donegal in the 1970s. The only people making money were fishermen so I became one at the age of 17. I’m 35 years at it now.
How did you become a skipper?
If you want to move ahead, you look at the man at the wheel and say to yourself that you wouldn’t mind doing that. I bought my first boat for €30,000 at the age of 22 and have kept going ever since.
What is the biggest challenge of your work?
The paperwork! The rest is second nature. It becomes almost overpowering at times keeping track of everything. There are lots of checks to ensure everything is in order and the penalties for getting it wrong are huge.
Control and enforcement rules are strict. I must inform the Sea-Fisheries Protection Agency each time I leave the port and must have an activity report outlining what I’m going to be doing. Then, each night I must report exactly what fish I’ve caught and where I’ve caught them.
To learn more about those working in fishing, visit the websites of the Federation of Irish Fishermen (fif.ie) and the Anglo North Irish Fish Producers’ Organisation (anifpo.com).
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