"Insane" salmon patrol decision angers fishermen

THE Irish South and West Fishermen's Organisation has described as "ridiculous" and "insane" a Government decision to dispatch a Naval patrol vessel on salmon patrols, when the driftnet salmon legislation has been amended and relaxed.

The decision to deploy the LE Ciara on salmon patrol within a new sixmile limit was like "sending warships after currachs", the ISWFO said. Mr Tom Hassett, ISWFO secretary, claimed yesterday that no Irish civil servant would have taken the decision. He said EU Fisheries Commissioner, Ms Emma Bonino, must have made a request to "take the heat off the Spaniards".

The legislation, initiated by the Minister of State for the Marine, Mr Eamon Gilmore, restricts drift netting for salmon to within six miles and permits the use of monofilament net. It also shortens the season. "Policing this fishery is well within the capability of the two expensive inshore vessels purchased by Government, and it is a complete waste of State resources to send a larger ship out on this activity," said Mr Donal O'Driscoll, ISWFO chairman.

"In fact, you could almost control this fishery from shore," Mr O'Driscoll said, referring to the Government plan to introduce a tagging and quota system for controlling salmon catches. The changes were made by the Minister of State on foot of recommendations made in the Salmon Management Task Force report, published last year. The report had said that the ban on use of monofilament net was "unenforceable".

It was "outrageous" to use a Naval patrol vessel, when crew restrictions prevented the deployment of more than three of the State's seven ships to sea at any one time, Mr O'Driscoll said. "On some areas of the coastline, by laws prevent fishermen from even going out to six miles anyway."

The salmon driftnet season opened on June 1st, and there have been no arrests to date. As the task force had pointed out, driftnetting for salmon is far less lucrative than it was 10 years ago, partly due to the production of farmed salmon. But the changes have not passed off smoothly, with protests by Slaney drift net fishermen in Co Wexford and a threatened blockade of Derry harbour by Donegal driftnetters unhappy with the switched season length.

Four Naval ships are on fishery patrol - an increase of one on the normal three - and the Air Corps Casa fishery protection planes have increased inshore surveillance. The number of fishery arrests is up on this time last year, with 27 to date. The 27th was an Irish registered vessel, the Sionnan, from Dingle, which was taken to Castletownbere, Co Cork, earlier this week by the LE Deirdre.

Of the 27, the bulk were Spanish "flagships", registered in Ireland and Britain. Four were Irish and three were French. The LE Ciara holds the record for fishery detentions this year.

. Ireland will host an international symposium on managing wild Atlantic salmon in September. It will compare the contrasting recommendations of management reviews undertaken in Ireland and Scotland. It will also discuss climate change and the effect on stocks.

More than 200 representatives from 15 countries will attend, according to Dr Ken Whelan, director of the Salmon Research Agency and a member of the council of management of the Atlantic Salmon Trust.