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.