Killybegs Fishermen's Organisation
Sean O Donoghue
Sean O Donoghue is a graduate of Civil Engineering from University College Cork (UCC) and is CEO of Killybegs Fishermen’s Organisation (KFO) since 2000. He has a long-established career in fisheries management, working in the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, and the state seafood agency, Bord Iascaigh Mhára (BIM), for 20 years prior to taking up his present position with the KFO in 2000. He has and continues to play a key role in a number of important fisheries issues such as the renewed Common Fisheries Policy, Technical Conservation Measures, fleet restructuring, quota management, Total Allowable Catches (TACs) and quotas negotiations, and a range of other Common Fisheries Policy issues. He is actively involved in Brexit and a founder member of the European Fishing Alliance (EUFA). He is a key player in a number of important fisheries areas both at national and European level and has been influential in ensuring the interests of the fishing industry are represented as necessary.
Sean was chairman of the European Association of Producer Organisations for seven years and is now a member of the Executive Committee. He is an executive committee member on three Advisory Councils, chairman of Working Group 2 in the Pelagic Advisory Council and vice chairman and Chairman of the Working Group 1 in the Markets Advisory Council. He is a board member of BIM for the last seven years and has served as a board member of the Marine Institute for five years and also as chairman of the Federation of Irish Fishermen (FIF). He is also chairman of Bio-Marine Ingredients Ireland Ltd (BII).
Sean has worked closely with the Marine Institute since its establishment and has promoted better dialogue between fishermen and fisheries scientists through a series of research projects. Under his guidance, KFO has been a proactive partner in a number of EU-funded projects: Profet Policy, ACRUNET, MYFISH and EfficientShip, reflecting the significant capacity that he can make available to important science-industry projects and more recently on a number of stock genetics projects.