Each year a suite of secondary legislation – including the Wild Salmon and Sea Trout Tagging Scheme Regulations (WSSTTSRs) – is made by my Department to set out the fisheries management regime for the following year. Prior to finalising the annual legislation, a 30 day public consultation process is undertaken which affords an opportunity for all stakeholders to make a written submission outlining their views on the proposals. The representative of the snap net fishermen made his submission within that process and the submission was carefully considered before the legislation was finalised.
The management of each of Ireland’s more than 140 salmon rivers, derives from the individual conservation needs of the rivers as each has a genetically unique stock of salmon The legislation is based on individual annual assessments of each river, including the Suir, Nore and Barrow where historically Snap Net fishing has taken place. These individual annual stock assessments are carried out by the independent Technical Expert Group on Salmon (TEGOS). This scientific assessment supports the annual management advice of Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI) setting out the status of each river (open to harvest, open to catch and release angling or closed to all fishing) for the following fishing season.
The Chair of TEGOS has previously engaged with the snap net representative in relation to similar previous submissions. I can request that officials of the Department and IFI engage again with this group and update me.
In line with the conservation imperative the determining factor as to whether any river may open to fishing is the availability of a harvestable surplus above the river’s conservation limit regardless of the harvest method.
