1. To outline the fishing industry both locally and in the County.

2. To help make the children more aware of the extent of the fishing industry and the impact it has on the community.

Materials: Computer, Scanner, Digital Camera, Printer, Paper.

A brief outline of the development of the fishing industry over the years.

"Development in the Fishing industry over the past 50-60 years is immense. Both in Ireland and abroad, in fishing methods, fishing vessels, or prossesing plants. The vessels have developed from traditional wooden boats to half-deckers or small trawlers on to huge trawlers and boats. Methods and prossesing plants have become more moderinised and have less work involved.
However all these changes have resulted in larger catches for boats . So the fish are becoming more and more hard to find. Due to this there was also a big cut in fish quotas (the amount of fish allowed to be caught). A large revival of stocks is needed to save the industry."

Facts and figures on processing and exports.

"Fish processing output amounted to 145, 000 tonnes in 1997, valued at 213m. Filleting and more advanced processing utilises 50,000 tonnes, or 15% of all landings. Pelagic speices are manly sold in semi-processed form, reflecting market demand. In the case of whitefish, as well as farmed fish and shellfish, there is considerable potential to produce quality products with a high value-added."

Fish Landings 
Irish landings of fish and shellfish were about 286, 000 tonnes in 1997, up from 177, 000 in 1985. Over this period, landings of demersal fish have increased slighty from 40,000 tonnes, but pegelic incresed from 123,000 tonnes to 216,000 tonnes. Because of its high value, the share of  demersal in landed value is slightly higher than that of peiagic speices, despite the differience in tonnage. This positon is ilustrated on the map on the other page which also outlines the value of fish landings for the top 40 ports in 1997.

The fishing industry is the largest industry in Southwest Donegal. Nationally the fishing industry employs 15,000 people. Around70% of the fish caught in Ireland is landed in Killybegs. Most of the fish caught in Ireland is exported to Europe and Japan. During the winter months some of the fish is landed in Norway and Scotland. The total value of Irish exports is 230 million pound per anima. The fish is exported on lorries mostly and sometimes freezer ships. It is exported to Germany, France, Poland, Norway, and even Spain. In the busy season more than ten loads a week be exported from Killybegs.
The largest boat in the world is the Atlantic Dawn, which was launched last week in Norway. It is a factory ship and is as big as Croke Park. It cost £50m to build it. It’ sister ship the Veronicas another big ship. It has a storage, which could contain 3,000 tons of fish. It is already fishing. These boats are based in Killybegs but still fish globally.
Another important part of fishing industry is the fish farming at sea. Salmon, trout and mussels are farmed successfully all over Ireland.

Photographs of Fishing vessels.

Maps of local fishing ports and European export countries,

Tasks are allocated to each group or individual in the class.

Children were accompanied to local factories to take photographs.

Research is edited and photographs are scanned.

Work is bound.

Follow Up Activities

Conduct a search on www for fishing sites
Sharing materials collected.
Reading aloud to the class interesting facts.
Read about fishing in different school geography textbooks and compare.
Cut out pictures and reports from newspapers etc.
Draw boats

Lesson 2 :	Boats and Fishing in Inver
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Aims

1. To inform the pupils about the fishing industry in Inver.

2. To make the children more aware of their immediate surroundings and to help them realise that fish are among the world’s renewable resources.

3. To indicate how Fish Farming is carried out in Inver Bay.

4. To help the children appreciate the importance that fishing has had in Inver down through the years..

Content / Methodology

A brief history of fishing in Inver is outlined.

"Inver is a place where all we think about is fishing we have four fishfarms in Inver and we have alot of boats. The boats in Inver are mostly all punts and just a few half deckers and about three sailings boats. Every year the people of Inver fish salmon lobsters,mackeral and we maybe could be lucky and sprit could come in the bay.The salmon fishing in Inver went down a lot over the years, there was days when you could get 50 or 60 salmon in one haul."

"Fishing in Inver through the years has been quite successful. For the last few years in Inver bay we have been fishing for salmon, mackerel, and herring and sprat. Today the 3^rd of March there are trawlers fishing in Inver bay. Most of them are fishing for sprat. When the sprat are landed by the pier, they are then auctioned in Killybegs. Most of the sprat are exported to Germany and France in 20 kilo cartons."

"The Port is a popular place in Inver where a lot of fishermen berth their boats. There are two fishfarms being run beside the Port and they are “Gallagher Bros.” And “Portside”. Years ago the Port used to be a whaling station and the harpoon was invented by a man called Thomas Nesbitt, from Brentar. There was a harbour master a few years ago and his name was Hugh Mc Cunningham and the ruins of his house are still standing."

"The back bone of a whale was found in a place beside the Port pier, known locally as the “Glar Hole”. The bone is now in the County Museum. At the time of the herring fishing in Inver Bay, the Port was used to land the fish and the fishermen used to shake the herring out of the nets onto the pier before being boxed and loaded onto lorries."     

Fish farming is also a very important industry in Inver bay. Inver will also have a new marina and slip pier at the mouth of the Eany River.

Let’s hope that fishing in Inver bay will prosper greatly in the future years.

Songs and folklore were gathered from local fishermen.

Photographs of local fishermen and landing areas are added.

Tasks are allocated to each group or individual in the class.

Research is edited and photographs are scanned.

Work is bound.

Follow Up Activities

Scanning and adding text in pairs .

Lesson 3 :	Boat Building
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Aims

1. To underline the importance of local industry and the contribution it makes to the community.

2. To help the children develop some interview skills.

3. To help the children appreciate the skills and craftsmanship involved in boatbuilding

Content / Methodology

An interview with a local boat builder.

Photographs of craftsmen at work.

Photographs of completed boat and it’s launch’

This then is typed and printed

Specific task was allocated to a particular individual.

Interview was held and then typed up.

Research is edited and photographs are scanned

Work is bound.

Follow Up Activities

Each house- hold that has a small boat at home either in use now or just maintained and uses occasionally are invited to contribute old photos. This is a slow process.

Arrange photos in sequence and scan and print text.

Lesson 4 :	Gallery of Photos
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Aims

1. To allow the children to use the digital camera in an educational and fun manner.

2. So that as many pupils as possible would see first hand the various aspects of Fishing.

Content / Methodology

Pupils are allowed to use their own cameras to take photos so that they will become more aware of the beauty of their own area and understand how the fishing industry is carried out locally and in the area.

ADULTS ACCOMPANY THE PUPILS AND ALLOWED TO TAKE PHOTOGRAPHS.

Photos are scanned and the story of fish farming in Inver bay is compiled.

Fish lorries and how they have changed

Small boats to large trawlers.

Folklore etc.

Follow Up Activities / Gallery Presentation

The children present their patch study to an older class - some photo samples.

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