Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 29 March 2017
178. Deputy Bobby Aylward asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment his plans to reopen the rivers Nore and Suir for snapnet fishing for this season (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15582/17]
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 the independent Standing Scientific Committee on Salmon (SSC), comprising scientists from a range of organisations. Scientific and management assessments of each stock, including the Suir and the Nore, are carried out every year with IFI engaged in an extensive stock monitoring which feeds into the scientific committee's annual reviews.
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.
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. The scientific committee applies a range of rod exploitation rates for recreational fishing activity and adds the commercial catch to calculate the total run of salmon.
For the 2017 season, based on rod catch and exploitation rates, the Suir was estimated to be meeting 79% of its conservation limit (CL) and the Nore achieving 70% of the CL. Management advice is that as both rivers are meeting greater that 65% of the CL they can be open for catch and release angling but this is not sufficient for harvest fisheries either commercial (including snap net) or angling.
The percentage of the CL achieved on the Nore and Suir for the last 5 years is shown in the following table.
|
- |
% CL achieved |
% CL achieved |
% CL achieved |
% CL achieved |
% CL achieved |
|
River |
2017 |
2016 |
2015 |
2014 |
2013 |
|
Nore |
70 |
60 |
91 |
121 |
153 |
|
Suir, Clodiagh, Lingaun, Blackwater |
79 |
68 |
80 |
83 |
117 |
The salmon assessment methodologies used in Ireland are considered internationally as best practice. Many other countries are moving towards the development of similar scientific assessment models for salmon stock conservation.
