The Irish Fishermen's Organisation (IFO) has accused the Government of trying to force commercial salmon fishermen off the water "by stealth".
The IFO was reacting yesterday to the details of this year's regulations on salmon and sea-trout fishing and angling, which have been approved this week by the Minister of State for the Marine, Mr John Browne. The regulations include a 12 per cent cut in this year's total commercial catch of salmon, with the quota set at 182,000 fish.
The chairman of the National Salmon Commission, Mr Joey Murrin, has defended the new regulations and says he is committed to ensuring a viable future for both commercial fishing and angling for salmon. "This is one fish stock that Brussels has no say in the management of, and we have to get it right," Mr Murrin told The Irish Times .
The revised regulations were passed after four weeks of consultation. The Minister emphasised that he could not ignore scientific advice which continued to maintain that reductions in overall fishing effort were required to sustain and rebuild salmon stocks on a district basis.
Mr Frank Doyle, secretary-general of the Irish Fishermen's Organisation (IFO), which is represented on the National Salmon Commission, questioned the accuracy of the scientific information. River counters which had been installed to assess the state of stocks were not functioning, and there was a "credibility problem" with the National Salmon Commission, he said.
Mr Murrin, the current chairman, defended the work of the commission and said anglers had been obliged to "take some pain" under a total allowable catch system and use of logbooks.
Maintenance of river counters to gauge stock levels was a problem, he acknowledged, but it was a "lie" to say that there was no evidence that stocks were in decline.
Mr Murrin also confirmed that 40 per cent of angling logbooks had not been returned, but this could be explained by visiting anglers forgetting to do so. "If anglers don't return logbooks, I will be proposing that they do not get a licence in future," Mr Murrin said.