Responsibilty for the designation of protected habitats and species and for reporting on their status rests with my colleague the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage. Wild caught wrasse are widely used in Irish salmon farms as cleaner fish. Ireland is not alone in this and this practice is commonly used internationally.
The ecological risk, associated with fishing in Special Areas of Conservation, for designated habitats and species, is set out in a Risk Assessment Report prepared by the Marine Institute to assist in the management of sea-fisheries in compliance with Article 6 of the Habitats Directive. Recently, the Marine Institute has advised my Department that a programme of data collection of numbers of wrasse of different species being caught, location of capture and associated fishing effort should be developed in order to support ongoing monitoring and further iterations of the risk assessment.
I understand that the Sea Fisheries Protection Authority is taking steps to introduce logbooks for fishers involved and my Department will engage with the salmon farming industry to ensure that information required to support ongoing assessment of wrasse fishing will be forthcoming.
