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Inland Fisheries Stocks

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 11 February 2014

Tuesday, 11 February 2014

Questions (350)

John Halligan

Question:

350. Deputy John Halligan asked the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources further to this Deputy's various recent questions and in view of the recent positive reports from Inland Fisheries Ireland, which has agreed that eel stocks in the Suir and Barrow rivers could sustain a commercial harvest (details supplied), if he will now reconsider the eel ban in the Waterford-New Ross district; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6436/14]

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Written answers

I refer to the reply to Questions Nos. 19 of 30 January 2014 and 376 of 4 February 2014.

With regard to the Waterford region, I am advised by Inland Fisheries Ireland that the advice from Ireland's scientists on the independent Standing Scientific Committee (SSC) for Eels does not support any assertion that stocks "in the Suir and Barrow could sustain a commercial harvest”. I am further advised that a survey of eel stocks was carried out in the Waterford estuary in 2009 and 2011. Low mark-recapture rates indicated probable high levels of movement within these waters and made population estimation difficult. Due to the difficulties in obtaining density estimates for eels in large water bodies and the migratory habits of eels moving upstream into the rivers and/or leaving the transitional water as silver eel, estimating silver eel escapement/production for transitional waters remains extremely challenging. The high growth rate confirms the importance of the transitional waters as a productive habitat for eels. In the absence of historic eel biomass estimates for the Waterford estuary to assess achievement of the eel escapement target, telemetry eel tagging studies undertaken in 2012, 2013 and continuing into 2014, will assist in giving a clearer indication of the movement habits of eels in estuaries and improve population density estimates.

Fishing for elvers is not included as a management action in Ireland’s EMP as surplus elver recruits were not identified for the 2012-2015 period.

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