Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 19 October 2011
26 Deputy Derek Keating asked the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, further to the news that sea salmon have returned and are spawning in the River Tolka, if there has been any similar research or result in the Liffey basin, particularly between Leixlip power station and the Lucan Weir; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29910/11]
View answerI am advised that a recent review of fish stocks in the River Tolka in North Dublin by Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI) has indeed indicated the presence of numbers of juvenile wild Atlantic salmon. IFI has also previously recorded the presence of salmon in both the River Liffey and the River Dodder and continues to monitor stocks on all rivers as part of the ongoing National Salmon Monitoring Programme. IFI's Standing Scientific Committee reports annually on the status of salmon stocks, which for the River Liffey in 2011 are estimated at approximately 19% of their conservation limit.
I understand that juvenile salmon are monitored under a catchment-wide electro-fishing programme, where 47 sites on the Liffey were monitored in 2010 and repeated in 2011. Other programmes that monitor fish in the River Liffey include the Celtic Sea Trout project, juvenile lamprey are monitored as part of the survey under the Habitats Directive and elver traps monitor eel stocks in accordance with the National Eel Management Plan.
IFI is also overseeing habitat rehabilitation projects on tributaries of the River Liffey, the Rye in Leixlip and the Morell in Johnstown, Co. Kildare. The presence of juvenile salmon, a species that only survives in clean water, reflects the hard work of the County and City Councils in reducing pollution levels in these largely urbanised rivers.
Up to the year 2000 Dublin and Reykjavik were the only two capital cities in Europe which had a wild Atlantic salmon stock in a river within city boundaries. Now Dublin can boast about having three salmon rivers within its boundaries — the Liffey, Dodder and now the Tolka. In environmental terms this is an important step forward.
