October 25th 2006

“IS&WFO disappointed with Report from Independent Group on Salmon ”

The IS&WFO representing commercial Salmon fishermen in the South West, have expressed their disappointment at the contents of a Report on the future of commercial salmon fishing from a three man independent group on Salmon. Mike Fitzpatrick, of the IS&WFO, said after reading the report "Our members are extremely disappointed with the recommendations contained within this report. However, we are not surprised as the Terms of Reference which were set by Minister Browne for the group to work within did not even allow them to consider the debate on whether drift net fishing should be continued. There are serious question marks over the scientific advice and the mixed stock argument on which the recommendation to end drift-netting are based. We submitted a Proposal to the Review Group which outlined an alternative management and research strategy for the next few years which would allow these questions to be answered once and for all. This Proposal was based on a voluntary buyout.

However, no alternative to a compulsory buyout is being considered. In the UK several years ago there was a voluntary buyout scheme and in the Faeroes and Greenland there is a voluntary set-aside scheme which is negotiated on an annual basis. Why were none of these possibilities considered here? We are also disappointed with the valuation of the fishery. The compensation scheme proposed in the Report is based on average catches from 2001 to 2005 during which time the fishermens quota was reduced by 60%. What must be considered here is the potential value of the fishery, if the salmon resource were properly managed in an integrated manner, which is enormous. Even at the very low catch levels allocated to fishermen in 2005 Udaras na Gaeltachta, in a Report published in February 2006 on the Kerry salmon fishery, have conservatively estimated the value of the catch to each license holder to be over €15,000.

The other main problem with the Report is that while in the eyes of some it may resolve the issue of salmon drift-net fishing its recommendations will create a series of new problems. The Report itself refers to this issue where it states that a salmon drift-net closure will result in increased pressure on inshore fisheries such as crab and lobster which are already fully exploited. However, the Report proposes no solution to this so if its recommendations are carried through we can fully expect that in future years another report will be required to try to solve the problems created by this one."