Deputy Austin Deasy gave me notice of his intention to raise on the Adjournment the subject matter of the legalisation of monofilament nets for salmon. Deputy Deasy has ten minutes to present his case.
Adjournment Debate. - Salmon Nets Legislation.
The use of monofilament nets by fishermen has been a contentious issue over the past ten or 15 years. It is illegal to use monofilament nets for salmon fishing but quite legal to use them for other types of fishing, such as gill netting. I want to see the use of this type of net legalised to allow it to be used by salmon fishermen whether they are drift net fishermen or snap net fishermen.
We often hear about the social problems in city areas such as Dublin, in the inner city, the suburbs or other major urban areas in the country. We also hear about the social problems of rural dwellers, particularly small farmers in the west, but very seldom, if ever, do we hear about the plight of the in-shore fisherman, the fisherman using a small boat. There are thousands of fishermen in this country who depend primarily on catching salmon during the season which lasts approximately from March to late July or early August.
Over the past 20 years drift netting for salmon at sea has become very big business and, by and large, it is illegal. The legal length of net is 800 yards with a depth of 30 meshes but trawlers and large boats using as much as two, three or four miles of nets have been fishing consistently off the west coast and, in doing so, they have taken massive catches of salmon and have done tremendous damage not just around our coast but in the North Atlantic generally. They have been aided and abetted in that by fishermen in Greenland and probably around the Faroe Islands also who have been doing it for a long number of years. The big boats are taking a tremendous amount of salmon and the small in-shore fisherman is getting a very meagre living.
To compound that difficulty which the in-shore fisherman has been having, he is not allowed to use a net which could enable him to catch a reasonable amount of fish. It is not possible in this day and age to make a living using the legal length 800 yards of nylon net. I am advocating here this evening that a certain amount of monofilament net be allowed to be used. The 800 yards that I spoke about as being the legal maximum length of net need not all be monofilament. If a compromise could be reached whereby, say, 200 yards of monofilament net and 600 yards of nylon net were allowed, then the small fisherman could make a living and there would not be conflict on the high seas between these in-shore fishermen and the fishery protection officers, or bailiffs as we know them. That is what happens at present, particularly in the months of May, June and July, and even running into August there is constant conflict along the coast.
In my own constituency a number of fishermen have gone to prison in recent years. This might be highlighted in local papers and possibly in the Cork Examiner but it seldom reaches the corridors of power in Dublin and the media in the capital. People are going to prison for trying to eke out a living for themselves and their families.
There are two alternatives if they cannot fish, the dole or emigration. Despite cutbacks the fishery boards have improved their equipment and now they are capable of pursuing and apprehending the people who might be fishing with this monofilament net, although it may be a very small amount of monofilament net. This has made life impossible for these salmon fishermen. People have gone to prison and others have had to give up fishing because they cannot make a living. In small communities like Ardmore, villages around Youghal Bay, such as Clashmore, Knockadoon and Monatrea, Helvick, Boatstrand, Dunmore East, Passage East, Cheekpoint, etc. people have had to stop fishing because they cannot make a living. It is a dreadful state of affairs that we cannot accommodate people who work hard under dreadful conditions — and it is no joke being out in an open boat in a storm in the months of May and June. These people have to work in terrible conditions and we should help them to make a reasonable living. I am not asking that all the net used be monofilament, but that a limited amount of it be allowed. In doing that, there should be some give and take.
The fishing week might actually be reduced in return for allowing fishermen to use this net. At present they can fish for five days. If they were catching a reasonable amount of fish I do not think they would object to having the fishing week reduced to four days. That in turn would be a tremendous boost for the tourist industry, specifically for anglers fishing for salmon with rod and line. The essence of the angling industry for salmon is that the fish get up the river. By having three days of the week closed to fishing, the fish will get up the river; the anglers and the tourist interests will, generally, be happy, the fishermen at the estuary and at sea will be able to make a decent living with the use of a certain amount of monofilament net and we will not have this constant conflict — which is not doing the country any good, is putting people into prison, is putting people out of a livelihood and causing a great deal of human misery. The salmon stocks can stand up to a limited amount of fishing with monofilament net. It is being done, as I said, with miles of this illegal net, and if the salmon here survived so far why can they not survive a limited amount of fishing with a limited amount of monofilament net?
The Deputy's time is almost up.
It is time a Minister with responsibility for fisheries, the Minister for the Marine, took his courage in his hands and faced up to the problem. We have been sidestepping it for far too long. I hope the Minister, Deputy Wilson, and the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, will take on board what I have had to say and I am sure the other Deputies here, Deputy Michael Ahern and Deputy Paddy Sheehan, also feel very strongly.
(Limerick West): Sir, I am giving half a minute to Deputy Ahern with your permission.
Agreed.
I agree with Deputy Deasy that we have had a great deal of hassle in the southern part of the country with the inshore fishermen and his monofilament net problem over the last number of years. Monofilament netting should be allowed but it should be reduced in length and depth. I would like the Minister to take into account also the use of a tagging system with regard to salmon. I believe that with a tagging system and monofilament net control we could give these people a chance of making a decent livelihood. I ask the Minister to take that into account.
Limerick West): The use of monofilament netting for salmon fishing has been prohibited by by-law since 1965 in the interest of conservation of salmon stocks. It is only one of a large range of conservation measures operated in order to ensure the survival of salmon as an exploitable resource. Salmon, as we all know, is both a sea and a freshwater fish and sufficient numbers of the species must be allowed access to our rivers on their return from their feeding grounds at sea in order to spawn and reproduce. The overall aim of the conservation arrangements in place is to limit the catch of salmon in tidal waters and ensure that adequate stocks are allowed to get into the rivers to spawn.
Some years ago there was a very big increase in drift netting for salmon at sea which intercepts the shoals of salmon on their journey back to their river of origin. This in itself constituted a threat to salmon stocks, but only when it was combined with the use of netting made from the newly developed monofilament material was it considered to be anti-conservation. The monofilament netting is invisible to salmon in the water and can be used by day and by night. It is extremely effective in netting more fish than could reasonably be allowed from a conservation point of view. It also causes internal damage to any fish which manages to struggle through the meshes.
This then is the background to the present ban which has been maintained since 1965 on the advice of scientific officers of my Department, the only change being made in 1984 to permit the use of monofilament materials in nets that was specifically designed and rigged for catching sea fish on the sea floor.
The Salmon Review Group considered the question of the use of monofilament netting in fishing for salmon as one of a number of related issues in the context of the salmon conservation regime as a whole. The group recommended that the ban should remain at least until agreement could be secured on a range of alternative conservation measures which would in themselves severely restrict the areas and times when drift netting could be carried on.
To summarise the arguments, therefore, the case made against any legislation of monofilament netting for use in salmon fishing is extremely strong. It is so efficient as a catching mechanism that its use could ultimately jeopardise the very survival of the salmon species. Even if legalised on a very restricted basis it would make proper monitoring and enforcement extremely difficult, if not impossible. The use of monofilament can pose a major hazard to navigation, which is also one of my concerns in the Department. Indeed, it can also cause serious damage to wildlife, so much so that there is talk about it being banned for all fishing purposes internationally. Any legislation is strongly opposed by salmon rod fishermen and by environmentalists, and there is pressure from other governments and international organisations against any modification of the existing law. Therefore, in the circumstances, any decision to legalise the use of monofilament for sea fishing should not be lightly taken and can be taken only if and when a whole range of exacting conditions are satisfied.
While I have considerable sympathy with the position of licensed salmon netsmen as outlined by Deputy Deasy and Deputy Ahern — I have taken the ponts on board as outlined by them — it would be very misleading for me at this stage to imply that the legislation of monofilament is on the immediate agenda.
That is merely a Civil Service hand-out. We need some political——
(Interruptions.)