Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 17 November 2004
236 Mr. Perry asked the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources the salmon research agency roles; the benefit the information is to the salmon industry; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29145/04]
View answerA number of State agencies are involved in salmon research work under the aegis of the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources.
Under the Fisheries Acts, primary responsibility for the conservation, protection and management of inland fisheries stocks rests with the Central and Regional Fisheries Boards. With regard to salmon research, the remit of the Central Fisheries Board is to carry out such research or experimental work as it considers necessary for the performance of its functions. As part of its remit, the board undertakes applied research and development in response to sectoral demands, the demands of the regional fisheries boards and as it sees fit itself. All the research carried out is of direct benefit to the fish and their ecology and to the stakeholders.
The Marine Institute was established in 1991 to support existing marine research, technology, development and innovation activity and to underpin future innovation and growth in the marine sector. The institute's salmon management services provide an integrated service in relation to sustainable salmon management, aquaculture, sea trout, eels, aspects of inshore fisheries, as well as commercial fishing and angling.
In July 1999, the Salmon Research Agency, SRA, was transferred to the Marine Institute and since then, the institute's salmon research effort has been concentrated at the former SRA research facility in Newport on the Burrishoole system in County Mayo. The Burrishoole system is one of the most important salmon index rivers in the North Atlantic and is one of only two in the island of Ireland. The Marine Institute carries out extensive research on a wide range of aspects of the Burrishoole system including stock dynamics of salmon, salmonid genetics; environmental and hydrological studies; catchment management studies as well as extensive research into the rearing of salmonids for stock enhancement, ranching and fish farming.
The Marine Institute's facilities comprise of a laboratory and administration block, freshwater hatchery and fish-rearing facilities, fish census trapping stations, a salmonid angling fishery and a comprehensively monitored freshwater lake and river catchment. The Newport research facility hosts a wide range of the institute's freshwater and inshore fisheries-based programmes and is also the centre for many national and international co-operative research and development programmes.
The National Salmon Commission, NSC, is a statutory advisory body established under the Fisheries (Amendment) Act 1999 to assist and advise the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources on the management of the national salmon resource. The commission includes representatives of the commercial fishing sector, the angling sector and other relevant stake holders and is advised in its work by its standing scientific committee. In recent years, its most important function has been to provide the Minister with the latest scientific advice on the level of wild salmon stocks and to advise him on the setting of a national total allowable catch, TAC, and quotas for the taking of salmon.
The salmon data gathered by all of these agencies is pivotal in the management of the species and in the setting of conservation limits and fishery targets aimed at ensuring the sustainable development of salmon as a commercial and recreational fishing resource. The salmon research work and advice provided by these agencies is extremely important in assisting the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources to implement the overriding objective of the Government which is to preserve the salmon resource in its own right and for the coastal and rural communities that it helps to support.
In this regard, it is the Government's belief that the current strategy of developing a sustainable commercial and recreational salmon fishery through aligning catches on the scientific advice holds out the strong prospect of a recovery of stocks and of a long term sustainable fishery for both sectors.
