Anglers from parts of Donegal and Louth will avoid a ban announced this week on the sale of wild salmon and trout to restaurants, hotels or shops. The anglers from Moville, Co Donegal, and Carlingford, Co Louth, fish on waterways under the jurisdiction of the Loughs Agency in Northern Ireland.
The Salmon and Sea Trout Caught by Rod and Line Prohibition and Sale Order came into force in the Republic on Wednesday and it will operate from January 1st to October 31st annually.
It is designed to stop poachers illegally using nets and other methods to catch fish and then selling them off as fish caught by rod and line.
The Minister for the Marine, Mr Fahey, said the move was aimed at protecting fragile fish stocks from exploitation. "Conservation of stocks will be aided by reducing the incentive for individual anglers to take large numbers of salmon to sell as a means of supplementing their income," he said.
The ban would also reinforce the view that angling should be a recreational activity, not a commercial one. However, the dual system operating in Louth and Donegal has raised concerns that some anglers might use their Loughs Agency fish tags to sell catches poached from rivers in the Republic. The Loughs Agency confirmed yesterday its anglers, including rod and line users in Carlingford and Moville, would still be permitted to sell fish caught by rod and line.
The agency's chief inspector, Mr Stanley Thorpe, said there was a possibility some unscrupulous anglers might exploit the dual system to poach fish in rivers in the Republic and sell them as Loughs Agency produce. However, he said mass exploitation of the new law was unlikely, given the level of inspection of the waterways.
"Anyone who decided on this course of action would be guilty of an offence and, if caught, could be prosecuted," he said.
The Northern Regional Fisheries Board and the Loughs Agency use the same tagging system to mark the origin of salmon and trout. Each tag carries the respective authority's mark.
A Buncrana Anglers' Association spokesman, Mr Tony Morrison, condemned the dual system as "a nonsense" and urged the Loughs Agency to adopt the new Department of the Marine prohibition order. "It is ridiculous for some anglers to be able to sell the fish they catch and others just up the road not being able to do so."
However, the association welcomed the prohibition order, saying it was one way of preventing illegal net users selling their produce as rod and line.