The Minister of State for the Marine, Mr John Browne, has rejected controversial plans by the South Western Regional Fisheries Board to introduce a bye-law allowing monofilament netting for wild salmon fishing in Cork Harbour.
However, Mr Browne has not ruled out the proposals which arose from the draft net sector. He has ordered further studies which will allow the use of monofilament in the harbour "on a trial basis" in limited areas over the next two years.
The study which will have to be within the quota for salmon and sea trout is for the purpose of "collecting additional scientific information" and strict guidelines on mesh size have been set down. It is not clear how anglers' representatives will view the Minister's decision, which will come before a fisheries board meeting in Macroom tonight.
Most of the anglers' representatives no longer attend board meetings because of the SWRFB's backing for the draft net proposals based on a three month study in the harbour which found no material difference between traditional methods and monofilament.
Mr Noel O'Flynn, chairman of the Oireachtas Committee on the Marine, said the new study will allow for "more consultation than there was in the past".
Earlier this year, hundreds of anglers from Cork and Kerry protested outside the board's offices in Macroom at the proposals. There has been deep division between commercial and leisure fishermen over the board's knife-edge vote to support the proposals. Anglers' representatives walked out angrily and have not attended the last three meetings of the board.
They said they were appointed "to protect salmon, not to find more efficient methods of killing them".
There has been no formal letter of resignation from the anglers and they can miss a further three meetings before being forced to resign.
The introduction of a bye-law would not be "appropriate at his time", Mr Browne wrote to Mr O'Flynn.
The previous study, which found little or no difference between traditional methods and the monofilament system, was conducted with too small a sample and over too short a period, he wrote to the board.