Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 22 May 2018
465. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the details of studies on the recovery of salmon fish stocks; and the actions taken to replenish them since 2007. [22114/18]
Amharc ar fhreagraInland Fisheries Ireland (IFI) is the State Agency statutorily responsible for the management and conservation of Ireland's Inland fisheries resources including wild Atlantic salmon. 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 (SSC), comprising scientists from a range of organisations. Scientific and management assessments of each of the distinct stocks are carried out every year with IFI engaged in extensive stock monitoring which feeds into the SSC's annual reviews. The SSC uses catch returns of individual rivers (rod catch, catch and release and any commercial catch) over the previous five years to estimate the total salmon returns in each of the previous five years. The use of a five year average ensures that a good or bad year does not have a disproportionate impact on the stock assessment in any single year.
Each river has an individual conservation limit which is the number of adult salmon required to maintain a healthy population. Rivers which sufficiently exceed their conservation limit may be opened for harvest fisheries (recreational and/or commercial). Rivers which meet 50% of their conservation limit may be opened for catch and release (C&R) angling which permits enjoyment of angling while having a negligible impact of vulnerable fish stocks and encouraging the shared responsibility to contribute to conservation and the potential rebuilding of these stocks. For 2018, 78 rivers in Ireland were open to harvest or catch and release fishing.
The decline in wild Atlantic Salmon is an international issue manifesting in rivers in all countries around the North Atlantic with scientific analysis from the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) estimating that marine survival of migrating salmon has been at or below 5% in the North Atlantic for more than a decade.
Marine survival is considered to have the biggest influence on return, from far North Atlantic feeding grounds, of salmon to all rivers on Atlantic coasts. Climate change in the ocean is considered to be a major factor. There is also evidence that heavy sea-lice infestation from salmon farming has resulted in additional mortality in respect of migratory North Atlantic salmon generally. In freshwater, water quality and a range of pressures such as afforestation, drainage, effluent discharge, siltation and agricultural enrichment can all have an impact on juvenile salmon production.
The protection and conservation of salmon internationally is managed through the North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organisation (NASCO) with which Ireland is aligned through the European Union. Concerted international co-operation has ensured that restrictions in feeding ground in Greenland and Faroese waters have been in place for a number of years via NASCO agreement. In June this year, my officials and those of IFI will join delegates from the EU, USA, Canada, Norway, the Russian Federation, Greenland and the Faroes in seeking to negotiate a continuation of restrictions in these waters.
The Atlantic salmon is a protected species under the EU Habitats Directive with which Ireland’s current salmon management regime complies. In order to align fully with the Directive and the NASCO principles, Ireland closed mixed stock fisheries at sea since 2007. It is considered that river stocks in Ireland would be in a far more perilous state if the closure of mixed stock fisheries had not been implemented.
