Rights of coastal communities must be observed

THE international climate of opinion is "increasingly hostile" to non recreational salmon fishing. Yet abolishing one sector in favour of another is "intrinsically divisive", inequitable and fails to recognise that legal drift netting is not the only, and may not even be the main, cause of the perceived decline of salmon, according to the Salmon Management Task Force report.

The legitimate right of coastal communities must be acknowledged, it says. With the right strategy in place, Ireland could be well placed to influence opinion in the international debate.

The report says this "pro active" strategy is crucial, if a sustainable, renewable and harvestable resource is to be maintained and augmented for the lasting benefit of the Irish people. While salmon management has deteriorated here in recent years, international moves to stem the stock decline have gathered pace.

This changed international climate means that commercial fishing for salmon in international waters has been reduced, and is carefully monitored through the North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organisation. Quotas have been placed on fisheries in the salmon feeding grounds at Green land and the Faeroe Islands, and schemes have been set up to lease quotas in those fisheries aimed at ending all interceptory fishing.

T.he result is "crystallisation of an international ethos which op poses all fishing for salmon at sea and encourages conservation strategies based on spawning escapement catchment management".

Irish salmon stocks are not in as poor a state as some suggest, the report says, but it is also critical of inadequate and unreliable data. The lack of such data raises serious questions". Only half a dozen Irish rivers have useful counters and/or traps, and in only one of these the Burrishoole system is it possible to monitor the fishery with total accuracy.

In spite of a widespread perception to the contrary, the decline in the value of wild fish has resulted in a fall in drift net licence holders. For those remaining, the response has been to seek even more fish to maintain income. The potential danger this represents to stocks has not been acknowledged generally.

The drift net fishery is now largely carried out close to shore by bona fide fishermen in boats of less than 40 foot in length, and almost all admit to using monofilament nets on grounds of safety, efficiency and low cost. Other evidence indicates that drift netting at sea continues in the close sea son in some areas.

Almost all draft nets are now operating in estuaries and tidal areas of rivers, it says. Draft netting is considered by many to be the preferred form of salmon net fishing, in that it harvests mainly single stocks and each draft net fishery can be managed by direct reference to the single stock it harvests. It also produces a better quality fish, it says.

The report says that 25,000 rod angling licences were issued last year, and there is no statutory limitation on numbers. The revenue exceeds revenue from sales of all net licences by a factor of four, and yet nominal catch figures would suggest that holders take less than one fish on average per licence.