Inland Fisheries

Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 11 June 2014

Wednesday, 11 June 2014

Questions (96)

Pádraig MacLochlainn

Question:

96. Deputy Pádraig Mac Lochlainn asked the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources further to Parliamentary Question No. 110 of 16 April 2014 and the subsequent provision of a list of research projects undertaken by Inland Fisheries Ireland or its predecessor organisations, the reason his Department did not include a major EU collaborative research project named sustainable management of interactions between aquaculture and wild salmon fish (details supplied); the other published or unpublished reports his Department has decided to exclude from the response to Dáil Éireann and if he will correct the record. [24819/14]

Written answers

Minister of State at the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources

There was no omission from the list already requested and supplied to the Deputy and the issue of correcting the record does not arise. The SUMBAWS project was an EU project and was co-ordinated by the University of St Andrews, Scotland. The final SUMBAWS report, based on research carried out in a number of countries including Ireland, was compiled by the University who then submitted the report to the EU.

The Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI) research elements of the project were included in the information (2003-2013) already supplied to the Deputy.

I appreciate that the list originally requested by the Deputy is extensive. However as he now identifies this project as of particular focus, I can advise that the relevant IFI research elements are included in the list provided as:

Gargan, P.G., Forde, G., Hazon, N., Russell, D.J.F. & Todd, C.D. 2012. Evidence for sea lice-induced marine mortality of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar L.) in western Ireland from experimental releases of ranched smolts treated with emamectin benzoate. Can. J. Fish. Aquat. Sci. 69: 343-353.

This publication contains all the salmon research undertaken by IFI under the SUMBAWS project and is the only IFI publication arising from that project.