Vol. 524 No. 2
148 Mr. J. O'Keeffe asked the Minister for the Marine and Natural Resources his views on the proposals of the North Western Regional Fisheries Board on salmon conservation and, in particular, that a catch and release policy will be intro duced next season; and the plans he has for salmon conservation. [22174/00]
I welcome the measures adopted by the North Western Regional Fisheries Board to conserve salmon stocks by setting bag limits on its own fisheries and by promoting a catch and release policy throughout its fisheries region.
The national salmon stocks remain very vulnerable and I propose to maintain all the conservation measures that are currently in place, including measures relating to the length of the fishing season, the weekly closing times, night-time fishing and the use of baits. I encourage the voluntary practice of catch and release by anglers, particularly in the case of the spring salmon which is especially vulnerable to over-exploitation in individual catchments.
Following the advice of the National Salmon Commission I have made regulations to provide for a scheme of tagging for wild salmon which will commence on 1 January 2001. The information provided by the tagging scheme combined with the fish counter programme will critically inform the development of salmon management policy over time.
Salmon tagging will provide valuable management information as a real time basis. There is, however, a great deal more to be done to effectively conserve and manage salmon stocks. I have asked the commission to analyse and advise me on a range of priority issues as follows: expanding and upgrading the national fish counter programme, enhanced spring salmon conservation strategies, catchment management strategies, the water quality challenge, incentivising reduction of commercial fishing effort, and predation.
My Department is currently providing co-funding in respect of two pilot schemes for set-aside of commercial fishing engines for salmon. Both of these schemes are at catchment level and I have requested the regional fisheries boards to encourage the various players in their fisheries regions and catchments to develop further similar projects based on consensus and local contribution.
