Vol. 487 No. 3
59 Mr. Finucane asked the Minister for the Marine and Natural Resources if his attention has been drawn to the sea trout demise along the west coast; that the lice versus smolt survival battle is being lost; and the annihilation of the sea trout species is now inevitable. [3882/98]
I am aware of the evidence since the 1970s of a slow decline in sea trout stocks in a number of catchments and of the population collapse in many mid-western sea trout fisheries in 1989. Sea trout research programmes have pointed to a range of environmental factors which are adversely affecting sea trout habitats and other fish stocks, including drainage, pollution, fertilisation, predation, hillside erosion and acidification. In addition to these factors the 1994 Whitaker report, associated the marked incidence of adverse pressure on mid-western sea trout stocks with heavy sea lice infestations on prematurely returning post smolt sea trout.
National sea trout conservation management and research programmes since 1991 have been directed towards the necessary sea trout research and stock rehabilitation, through stock assessment, restocking and conservation measures as well as measures to address the various adverse factors at work. The measures include intensive sea lice management strategies on marine based salmon farms. Further enhancement of these multiple strategies was recommended in the Whitaker Sea Trout Task Force Report of 1994 which has been the agreed blue print for sea trout programmes since that time. There is evidence that the strategies have been paying dividends with modest improvements in a number of stocks. However, the reliability of rod catch statistics and sea trout stock assessments, through notably the installation of counters, needs to be further improved, in order to accurately quantify the impact of measures taken to date and to underpin ongoing management and rehabilitation strategies.
