Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 21 March 2017
1138. Deputy John McGuinness asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if a fish counter will be provided as promised by IFI and the OPW on the River Nore, Kilkenny city. [13874/17]
Amharc ar fhreagraInland Fisheries Ireland (IFI) is the state agency responsible for the protection, management, development and conservation of Ireland's inland fisheries. IFI manages salmon stocks on an individual river basis as each of Ireland’s 147 salmon rivers (including river sections and estuaries) has its own genetically unique stock of salmon.
IFI is supported in its management role by an independent Standing Scientific Committee on Salmon (SSC). Scientific and management assessments of each stock including the Nore are carried out every year.
The SSC estimates the number of salmon likely to return to each river in the next fishing season based on salmon runs over the most recent five years to determine if each river is meeting its individual conservation limit to maintain a healthy population. If the estimate of returning salmon is above this limit, then salmon from that individually genetic river population may be harvested commercially or by rod and line.
Fish counters are a component element of the national assessment array in use by the SSC. In carrying out salmon stock assessments, the Committee draws on a number of data sets, including rod and commercial catch data, fish counters and catchment wide electro-fishing. The primary index for evaluation of likely returning numbers is the recorded rod (harvest or catch and release) and commercial catch (if any), averaged over the previous 5 years. Fish counters are particularly useful in cases where rod or commercial data is not available. In addition, information on juvenile abundance indices, derived from electro-fishing surveys carried out annually by IFI, is also evaluated as an indicator of stock status.
The salmon assessment methodologies used in Ireland are considered internationally as best practice with many other countries moving towards the development of similar scientific assessment models for salmon stock conservation.
Given the availability of catch records on the majority of rivers including the River Nore which is open for Catch and Release and other indices, the number of fish counters in use is considered sufficient as a component within the array of methodologies available to the SSC. However, the requirement for additional counters is continually reviewed.
