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Fisheries Protection

Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 9 July 2014

Wednesday, 9 July 2014

Questions (296, 300)

John Browne

Question:

296. Deputy John Browne asked the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the reason the fishermen on the River Barrow have yet to be allowed to return to their fishing while the other two rivers, the Nore and Suir are opened sporadically and the nine persons affected by the ban on fishing would like the order rescinded; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30028/14]

View answer

John Browne

Question:

300. Deputy John Browne asked the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources when fishing will be allowed at the Waterford estuary rivers; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29982/14]

View answer

Written answers

I propose to take Questions Nos. 296 and 300 together.

Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI) is the state agency responsible for the protection, management and conservation of Ireland's inland fisheries and sea angling resources. As each of Ireland’s 143 salmon rivers has its own unique stock of salmon IFI manages salmon stocks on an individual river basis. IFI is supported in its management of salmon stocks by a statutorily based Standing Scientific Committee (SSC) on Salmon comprising scientists from IFI, Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM), the Loughs Agency, the National Parks and Wildlife Service, the Marine Institute, the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI- Northern Ireland) other State bodies and third level institutions. IFI also carries out extensive monitoring of salmon stock status which feed into the scientific committee's assessments carried out every year.

The salmon Conservation Limit (CL) is the number of spawning salmon required to maintain a sustainable population and is used to indicate the number of salmon in a river system above which a harvestable surplus can be considered. Salmon conservation limits are set similarly for all of Ireland’s salmon rivers. The SSC revised the conservation limits for all rivers for the 2014 scientific advice.

The Waterford Estuary has three main rivers entering the estuary; the Barrow, Nore and Suir. IFI advise me that Waterford estuary is currently below its conservation limit and therefore there is no permitted salmon /sea trout fishery there. The SSC advice for the Nore for 2014 was that the river was meeting its CL and had a surplus of 2214 salmon. The SSC advice for the Suir for 2014 was that the river was not meeting its CL and had a deficit of 2449 salmon and therefore would remain closed for harvesting of salmon. The SSC advice for the Barrow for 2014 was that the river was also not meeting its CL and had a deficit of 8284 salmon and therefore would remain closed for harvesting of Salmon. The opening of a commercial salmon fishery can only be considered if there is a suitable surplus of salmon (in excess of conservation limit) available for harvest.

Prior to any commercial salmon fishing being permitted in the Waterford Estuary it will be necessary for all the waters in the vicinity of the fishing location to be in surplus at the same time and for genetic analysis to have confirmed that no other stocks are mixed in the area. If genetic assessment proves that the stocks in the area are specific to local rivers only, and that analysis shows that these stocks are all above their conservation limit with a surplus available for exploitation, consideration could be given to a commercial fishery. It should be noted that where such a regime exists the overall quota for the area is not based on the sum of the individual quotas as this could result in over exploitation of the river with the lowest surplus. As a consequence any combined quota must ensure that all relevant rivers attain their conservation limit. Any future decision on a fishery can only be taken in the context of the estuary being above its conservation limit. Ireland must be particularly careful to ensure that all national and international legislation and other obligations are met in any future management regime.

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