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Inland Fisheries

Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 18 April 2012

Wednesday, 18 April 2012

Questions (729, 730, 731, 732, 733, 734, 735, 736, 737, 738, 739, 740, 741, 742)

Frank Feighan

Question:

747 Deputy Frank Feighan asked the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if he will provide a list of eel dealer licences issued by his Department in 2010 and 2011; and the names of successful and unsuccessful applicants. [18701/12]

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Frank Feighan

Question:

748 Deputy Frank Feighan asked the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if he will provide the tonnage of eels imported into the State in 2009, 2010 and 2011. [18702/12]

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Written answers

I propose to take Questions Nos. 747 and 748 together.

There were no eel dealer licences issued in 2010 and 2011.

I am advised by Inland Fisheries Ireland that a small number of kilogrammes were purchased from the Lough Neagh Fishery in Northern Ireland in 2011 and imported into the State for processing. Since the commercial eel fishery was closed in 2009 no other imports have occurred.

Frank Feighan

Question:

749 Deputy Frank Feighan asked the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if he will provide a list of trap and truck licences issued by his Department in 2009, 2010 and 2011; and the names of successful and unsuccessful applicants. [18703/12]

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Frank Feighan

Question:

750 Deputy Frank Feighan asked the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the cost of the trap and truck operation in 2009, 2010 and 2011; if his Department provides the funding; the reason eels need to be transported when they can swim themselves for millions of years; if eel fishery remains closed, the reason there is a need for such licences in an age of value for money. [18704/12]

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Frank Feighan

Question:

751 Deputy Frank Feighan asked the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if it is possible for a person to obtain a trap and truck licence and eel dealers licence under current regulations and is the EU aware of the arrangement; his views on whether this system is unnecessary and possibly open to abuse; and the person who has the supervisory role if any. [18705/12]

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Frank Feighan

Question:

752 Deputy Frank Feighan asked the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the list of available scientific evidence that requires trap and truck approach to the natural migration and movement of eels. [18706/12]

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Frank Feighan

Question:

753 Deputy Frank Feighan asked the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if, under section 14 of the 1959 Fisheries Act, a permit was issued by his Department to the ESB in August 2009 to authorise the undertaking of trap and transport operations; whether the constitutional role the ESB exercise regarding conservation in view of the actions relied upon in the Irish eel management plan includes the closure of commercial and recreational fishery ensuring upstream migration of juvenile eel at barriers and the mitigation of the impact of hydropower. [18707/12]

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Frank Feighan

Question:

754 Deputy Frank Feighan asked the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if the ESB fisheries or subsidiary division holds a current trap and truck licence. [18708/12]

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Frank Feighan

Question:

755 Deputy Frank Feighan asked the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the protocols and sanctions under the trap and transport operations authorised by the ESB in accordance with the contract conditions, statutory permissions and agreed protocols, if any, and examples of good practice from other European Fisheries. [18709/12]

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Frank Feighan

Question:

756 Deputy Frank Feighan asked the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if the ESB fishery division or any employee or agent held an eel dealer’s licence in the years 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011. [18710/12]

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Frank Feighan

Question:

757 Deputy Frank Feighan asked the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the measures that are in place to distinguish eels from different countries in view of the fact that licences are required to permit dealers to sell imported eels from other member states including Northern Ireland, which comply with the EC regulation including its traceability requirements. [18711/12]

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I propose to take Questions Nos. 749 to 757, inclusive, together.

The 2007 EU Eel Regulation (1100/2007), EC Regulation (Council Regulation 1100/2007) was drafted in response to the endangered status of the European Eel, required European states including Ireland to develop Eel Management Plans for implementation in 2009. The objective of each Eel Management Plan is to reduce anthropogenic mortalities so as to permit with high probability the escapement to the sea of at least 40% of the silver eel biomass relative to the best estimate of escapement that would have existed if no anthropogenic influences had impacted the stock. The Irish Eel Management Plan has four main management actions aimed at reducing eel mortality and increasing silver eel escapement to the sea. They were as follows:

a cessation of the commercial eel fishery and closure of the market,

mitigation of the impact of hydropower, including a comprehensive trap and transport plan to be funded by the ESB,

to ensure upstream migration of juvenile eel at barriers,

to improve water quality.

Recently the status of the European Eel in Ireland was defined as critically endangered in Ireland Amphibians, Reptiles and Freshwater Fish Red Data List, published in 2011. Scientific analysis estimated that 2007 Eel escapement (adults going to sea) was at 23% of pristine stock and declining. Due to the very long cycle and slow growth in Irish waters it is probable that any recovery of the Irish eel stocks will be over a very long time frame.

Hydropower on major catchments causes mortality of eel passing through turbines. Ireland's eel management plan sets out mitigation of hydropower as one of the management actions aimed at reducing eel mortality and increasing silver eel escapement to the sea. The ESB and the National University of Ireland Galway (NUIG) are currently researching the level of turbine mortality on the Shannon and Erne but it is estimated that turbine mortality is above 20%. A number of studies carried out across Europe suggest an average mortality rate of 28.5% across all length classes per hydropower installation according to the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) in 2003.

To reduce this mortality on eels passing down the headrace of the hydropower stations and through turbines, migrating silver eels are captured upstream and transported down below the hydropower stations and released.

A license was issued under Section 14 of the 1959 Fisheries Act to the then ESB for Trap and Transport operations in 2009, 2010 and 2011and there were no other applicants. A similar authorisation has not yet been issued in respect of 2012. Authorisation facilitates the ESB to contract fishermen to catch silver eel for transport and release below the hydropower stations.

While ESB supervises the activity directly, both the catching and release of eels is monitored by Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI) and where appropriate the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure, Northern Ireland (DCAL).

A similar effort is made by ESB in trapping juvenile eel at the base of the lowermost hydroelectric stations and transporting these juvenile eel upstream where they are released into the existing habitat.

The protocols and sanctions are all listed within the documentation supplied by the Department in a section 14 authorisation. I am organising for the same to be forwarded to the Deputy. They are based on current best practices and are reviewed annually. There is a high level of monitoring by both IFI (and DCAL where appropriate) built in to safeguard the welfare of migrating eels.

The cost of the operation was met each year by the ESB and as such is a matter for that organisation.

There were no eel dealer licences held by the ESB Fisheries during the years 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011.

ESB are involved in the trap and transport operation as part a multi-agency co-operative approach in the implementation of Ireland's Eel Management Plan and were not party to decisions to cease the commercial fishery as part of that plan. The European eel is a single, panmictic, stock distributed from Northern Africa and the Mediterranean in the south to Northern Norway and Iceland in the north, including the Baltic Sea. Recent genetic evidence has confirmed the shared nature of the stock, with slight temporal variation between cohorts but no geographical differentiation (Palm et al. 2009). Therefore, it is not possible to genetically distinguish eels from different European countries.

Frank Feighan

Question:

758 Deputy Frank Feighan asked the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if he is in talks in relation to the privatisation of the Shannon fishery; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18712/12]

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Frank Feighan

Question:

759 Deputy Frank Feighan asked the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources his views on the practice of removing large quantities of glass eels from the Shannon Estuary and selling these eels to commercial third parties. [18713/12]

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Frank Feighan

Question:

760 Deputy Frank Feighan asked the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if he will provide a breakdown of the research and surveys of glass eels carried out on the River Shannon; the cost of same; and any plans to renew the licences . [18714/12]

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I propose to take Questions Nos. 758 to 760, inclusive, together.

There are no talks underway or plans to privatise the River Shannon Fishery. There is a ban on commercial fishing for eels from inland waters in the State including the River Shannon Estuary. I am advised by Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI) that there is no evidence of the illegal removal of large quantities of glass eels from the River Shannon Estuary or the sale of these to third parties.

In 1993 and 1994 ESB carried out a glass eel programme, which investigated sampling techniques, biological observations and discussed results in an international context.

This was an intensive survey into glass eels and elvers in the River Shannon estuary. Subsequently between 2002 and 2008 small quantities of glass eels were caught at some rivers near Limerick and transported upstream to Lough Derg.

Glass eel recruitment in the Shannon dropped after 1983 and with the exception of the mid 1990s has remained low since. There was no improvement in the recruitment of glass eels to the River Shannon between 2009 and 2011.

Information derived from glass eel research on the Shannon has been provided in Ireland's Report to the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) in 2011 and in the Draft Report of the IFI's Standing Scientific Committee for Eel (2012).

I attach for the Deputy's information a table summarising the glass eel catches in the River Shannon catchment from 1985 to 2011. The research in question has been carried out for almost three decades and has been part of the research spend by IFI and its predecessors for that extended period. The costs of eel research are not disaggregated from overall research costs and are not available.

Table: Glass eel catches (kg), 1985 to 2011 (blanks = not fished)

Year

Shannon Ardnacrusha

R Feale

R Maigue

Inagh R

Shannon Estuary Glass Eels

1985

1,093

503

1986

948

1987

1,610

1988

145

1989

27

1990

467

1991

90

1992

32

1993

24

1994

287

70

14

1995

398

0

194

1996

332

0

34

140

1997

2,120

407

467

188

616

1998

275

81

8

11

484

1999

18

135

0

0

416

2000

39

174

0

120

43

2001

27

58

2

18

1

2002

178

116

5

37

2003

378

36

72

111

147

2004

58

0

0

24

1

2005

41

0

1

0

41

2006

42

1

0

4

3

2007

45

0

0

39

12

2008

7

0

0

82.5

2

2009

8

42

2010

50

20

3

1,312

3

2011

7

5

5

8

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