Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI) is responsible for oversight of commercial salmon fishing in our 140 salmon rivers. The harvest of salmon, by commercial or recreational means, is only permitted on those river stocks that are meeting their conservation limit - the minimum number of adult fish required to maintain a healthy and sustainable population in the individual river. A suite of secondary legislation is set out annually to establish the status of the salmon stocks in each river and the available surplus on each river that is open for harvest. A further specific suite of secondary legislation is also made each year to set out the various opening and closing dates, specify where commercial fisheries are permitted, and licensing requirements, enabling the management of any quota made available to licensed commercial fishermen from the available surplus. If no surplus is available no commercial quota is established. Protection under the legislation in this area also extends to sea trout over 40cms in length.
IFI deploys 166 officers on a range of duties such as conservation, protection and enforcement of fisheries legislation. These activities are carried out via vehicle, vessel, kayak, personal watercraft, bicycle and foot patrols and using a range of state-of-the-art equipment. IFI also carries out covert surveillance at poaching “hot-spots” and deploys a specialist dog unit trained in the detection of concealed nets and other apparatus.
In 2019, IFI invested almost 150,000 person hours in protecting the fish resources of the State and in the process seized almost 200 nets, totalling some 10kms in length. IFI Officers also undertook 881 inspections of licensed commercial fishing activities during the year and initiated or completed 121 prosecutions for fisheries offences.
