Vol. 442 No. 4
2 Mr. Clohessy asked the Minister for the Marine if he intends to respond favourably to the most pertinent of the 43 recommendations of the sea trout task force that a body similar in representative composition to that of the task force be established to monitor, liaise and encourage dialogue and communications between all interested parties, statutory and otherwise.
42 Ms McManus asked the Minister for the Marine his response to the final report of the marine sea trout task force presented to him on 29 March 1994; if he intends to implement the recommendations made in the report; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
50 Mr. L. Burke asked the Minister for the Marine when he expects to receive the final report of the sea trout task force; and the steps, if any, he proposes to take in the interim to save the sea trout.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 2, 42 and 50 together.
I am pleased to advise Deputies that the final report of the sea trout task force was presented to me on 28 March last by its Chairman, Dr. T. K. Whitaker, and has been published. I am glad to have this opportunity to record my appreciation of the whole-hearted dedication of the Chairman and all members of the task force to fulfil their remit so comprehensively and within such a short period of time.
Members will recall that I established the sea trout task force in July 1993 with one item only on the agenda, which was to address the survival of this heritage of ours, sea trout, and to advise on additional strategies needed to combat sea trout declines. The membership of the task force represented all interested parties including fishery owners, fishery boards and salmon farmers as well as An Bord Iascaigh Mhara and departmental officials. It is interesting to note — and I addressed the issue on "Prime Time" on television the other evening — that all participants signed the report, right across the broad spectrum. This report is now in the public domain.
I warmly welcome the report of the task force as constituting a positive and timely contribution to understanding and tackling the complex issues involved. As a consensus report, the outcome of wide-ranging analysis and constructive debate by all concerned, its findings and recommendations offer a practical framework for action and I am now proceeding on that basis. I am also proceeding on the basis of consensus. The approach to this very serious position in that agreement must be reached as a matter of urgency by fin fish farmers, salmon fish farmers and those people espousing the cause of the "save our sea trout" campaign, is fundamental to the heritage we and subsequent generations hope to enjoy.
Implementation by the Department of the various task force recommendations, therefore, is already under way. The necessary adjustments to the 1994 sea trout action programme on conservation, management rehabilitation and research are being finalised as a matter of priority.
The short and long term corrective measures on sea lice control recommended by the task force — there are 33 recommendations — are incorporated in the ongoing sea lice management programme which has been enhanced to ensure the highest level of monitoring, control and reporting arrangements recommended in this excellent report. Ongoing results form lice monitoring programmes show that lice levels are being controlled at satisfactorily low levels. Fish farm management, fallowing strategies and lice monitoring programmes are being overseen and co-ordinated by the senior scientist of the Fisheries Research Centre — a man of considerable reputation — now based in the west to ensure a proper regional approach, who will report regularly to the Department and to the successor body of the task force. The work of the task force will not cease now since there will be a successor body to it — that is how seriously I perceive the problem — until there is a solution to the problem we all seek to resolve in the national interest.
In line with the task force's recommendation, sea trout conservation by-laws have been renewed for 1994. The additional refinements to these by-laws, as recommended in the report, were also finalised this week.
The task force recommended that it should be replaced by a continuing body, representing the same interests as the task force, which will monitor the results of inspections and research, maintain the process of communications and dialogue and advise on further action as necessary. I assure Deputies that the necessary arrangements for this body are being put in place as a matter of priority.
The task force has endorsed fallowing regimes and single bay management as sound fish farm management practices and as effective long term means of controlling sea lice and other pathogens. Fallowing strategies will be further developed and co-ordinated at regional level in line with the task force recommendations.
The task force has advised that, for pressing economic and social reasons, the national objective must be to combine the commercial development of sea farming with the preservation of the sea trout as an important contribution to local income and employment. The task force also advises that it is important to ensure the compatible progress of both sea trout angling and sea farming as sources of jobs and income in disadvantaged areas. We are talking about peripherality here, about the translation of a philosophy into political practice. In line with the thrust and emphasis of the report, I am confident that implementation of the recommendations of the task force will enable the objective of compatible and complementary development to be achieved in the interests of our rural communities
I express my sincere satisfaction and thanks to the Minister for his wide-ranging reply, since this saga or difference of opinion has continued for some time and the position had not improved up to the very recent past. I very much welcome the establishment of this task force, bringing all interested parties together, who should be able to work more successfully in the future. As all Members representing constituencies bordering the seas around our coast will know, fishing for sea trout was a tremendous tourist attraction. I have been informed by people in the fishing industry that sea trout had become scarce because of infestation by sea lice. With the establishment of this task force I hope that public relations between all the relevant bodies will improve.
I am grateful to Deputy Clohessy for his positive response to what the task force sought to achieve and what will be sought by its successor. I am aware the Deputy is an angler of some repute and indeed I benefited from his abundant fishing.
In relation to the decline of the sea trout, the fact that the task force reported what is described as a casual link, or what scientists described as anecdotal evidence of the existence of the sea lice on salmon and its infestation of the white trout, the Deputy will be aware that numbers of sea lice get around the fins of salmon trout, which is where the damage is caused. I should like to think that, as a direct result of this new regime, the problem that has obtained for some years past, first identified in 1987-88, will be addressed in a really positive manner for the first time resulting in a decline in the presence of sea lice on salmon farms.
Will the Minister make a copy of the Whitaker report available to us?
I was not aware that the Deputy did not have a copy. Members of the House should have been the first people to whom that report should have been made available. I apologise and will have that error corrected.
