Dr. Ciaran Byrne:

We are grateful to have this opportunity to address the committee on the important topic of the depletion of fish stocks in inland waterways and the incidence of illegal fishing in estuaries. Inland Fisheries Ireland was established on 1 July 2010 following the amalgamation of the central and seven regional fisheries boards. The agency was established under the Inland Fisheries Act 2010, with many of its powers deriving from the principal Act governing the sector, that being, the Fisheries (Consolidation) Act 1959. The main functions of Inland Fisheries Ireland, as identified in the 2010 Act, are to "promote, support, facilitate and advise the Minister on the conservation, protection, management, marketing, development and improvement of inland fisheries, including sea angling".

It is important to note that protection and conservation of the inland fisheries resource number among the primary functions of the agency. These were also primary functions of the central and regional fisheries boards established in 1980 and the Boards of Conservators and the Inland Fisheries Trust before them. However, protection and conservation have comprised a topic of much interest and discussion since well before the formation of the State. For example, in 1836 there was a royal commission of inquiry into the state of salmon in Ireland and, in 1901, the Statistical and Social Inquiry Society of Ireland, SSISI, produced a report on salmon fisheries.

It is also important that we assist the committee in considering the context of why protection and conservation are conducted. While there are domestic, EU and international obligations, we are protecting and conserving resources generating some €755 million annually for the national economy. The impact of this socio-economic dividend is largely of benefit to peripheral and rural communities, often where alternative earning opportunities can be limited.

In today's context, there are three fish species of particular interest, those being, salmon, bass and eel. The abundance of all three have decreased in recent years. Previously, commercial and recreational fisheries for all three species existed, but today only salmon is fished commercially and on a limited basis. Following concerns in the 1990s about the decline of salmon numbers returning to the Irish coast, the then Minister with responsibility for wild fish established a salmon task force to consider this matter and advise him on how this decline might be arrested and stocks improved.

The then Minister introduced a number of conservation measures for the 1997 commercial season. Between 1997 and 2007, on foot of further ongoing concerns in respect of the abundance of salmon, a number of other fishery management measures such as a carcass tag and logbook scheme were implemented. In 2006 the then Government committed to aligning with the scientific advice. The import of this was that it was no longer permissible to target mixed-stock salmon fisheries at sea. In 2007 the then Government introduced a hardship scheme of €25 million to support fishermen to exit the fishery. An additional €5 million was also made available for community support schemes. From that point forward the management of wild salmon was conducted on an individual river basis in order to reflect the genetically unique stock in each river. The primary driver became - and remains - the independent scientific advice. If there was no harvestable surplus as advised by the scientific advice, then there was no harvesting of salmon. While there are currently more rivers opened with harvestable surpluses than in 2007, anecdotal evidence suggests there has been a decrease in the marine survival of salmon and this has led to reduced abundance in the current year, although the weather may be a significant factor in this regard.

The steep decline in bass stocks in Ireland in the mid-1970s resulted in a severe decline of the renowned Irish bass angling resource. Ultimately, this decline led to the cessation of the commercial fishery in 1990 to conserve stocks through the Bass (Conservation of Stocks) Order 1990. Since then bass has been regarded solely as an angling species and is restrictively managed. Bass is a long-lived and slow-growing species and only attains maturity between four and seven years of age. Specimens can be up to 20 years old.

IFI was anxious to establish the overall and socioeconomic value of the resource it is charged with protecting. The most comprehensive survey of the economic value of recreational angling in Ireland identified that the total direct expenditure on recreational angling in Ireland in 2012 was estimated to be of the order of €555 million, of which €121 million was generated by out-of-State anglers. When indirect and induced impacts are taken into account, the overall economic impact of recreational angling in Ireland is, therefore, estimated to be approximately €755 million. Total tourist angling expenditure was estimated at approximately €280 million and recreational angling can be estimated to support approximately 10,000 jobs.

It is estimated that bass angling in Ireland could contribute in the range of €116 million to €146 million annually to the economy, predominantly in rural areas. Given the importance of this species and the poor status of the stocks, IFI has prioritised its bass research programme. This programme aims to provide scientific advice on measures for the conservation and protection of bass and their aquatic habitat, while also facilitating long-term sustainable social and economic value for stakeholders. The programme has been developed to determine the status of bass stocks and to improve understanding of the ecology and biology of this valuable species which is vulnerable to over-exploitation. Current activity within IFI’s bass programme includes: stock assessment -juvenile, pre-adult and adult; ecological investigations; stock identification; and migration studies. While in Ireland bass is managed as a recreational fishery, there are commercial fisheries for bass in other jurisdictions. In that context, the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea, ICES, has advised that a management plan is urgently needed to develop and implement measures to substantially reduce fishing mortality throughout the range of the stock as a result of concerns about the overall status of the stock and a number of years poor recruitment.

The European eel is found and exploited in fresh, brackish and coastal waters in almost all of Europe and along the Mediterranean coasts of Africa and Asia. The European eel is a single, panmictic - or genetically identical - stock distributed from northern Africa in the south to the farthermost regions of Norway in the north. Following Europe-wide concerns regarding the status of eel stocks, EU Regulation (Council Regulation 1100/2007) was introduced. This regulation requires member states to monitor the eel stocks, evaluate current silver eel escapement and post-evaluate implemented management actions aimed at reducing eel mortality and increasing silver eel escapement. The Irish eel management plan submitted to and accepted by the EU in 2009 identified four main management actions: a cessation of the commercial eel fishery and closure of the market; mitigation of the impact of hydropower, including a comprehensive trap and transport plan to be funded by the ESB; ensure upstream migration of juvenile eel at barriers; and improvement of water quality. This plan and the stock status of eels was reviewed in 2012 and the management measures to which I refer were continued for a further three-year period.

In addition to the three species I have mentioned, IFI is very concerned about status of sea trout. Following the collapse of the sea trout stocks off the west coast of Ireland in 1989, predominantly as a result of the impacts of sea lice from poorly-managed and poorly-situated aquaculture facilities, stocks in many areas have still not returned to former abundance levels. Sea trout are particularly vulnerable to the negative impacts of sea lice due to their foraging ecology. Unlike salmon, which migrate out to the high seas, sea trout spend considerable time in the near-shore estuarine environment and are prone to being repeatedly infected with sea lice.

IFI expends a considerable portion of time and resources on the protection of all fish stocks but, of necessity, greater emphasis is placed on those stocks in greater difficulty. With approximately 5,600 km of coastline extending out to 12 nautical miles, there is an immense area to protect. However, since the cessation of the commercial drift net fishery at sea much of the illegal fishing effort for salmon and other species has moved into the estuarine areas. Anecdotally, incidences of commercial-scale illegal fishing for salmon have decreased. However, there has been an increased targeting of bass off the south and south-west coasts. Notwithstanding this, IFI recorded 381 incidents in 2013 and prosecutions were initiated in respect of 112 of these - an increase of 14 on the number for 2012. In 2013 staff seized over 455 nets totalling 24.1 km, which is comparable with the 24.5 km of illegal nets seized in 2012. The greatest number of nets seized in 2013 were 58, 124 and 122. These were seized in the months of June, July and August, respectively.

In terms of the protection effort, IFI staff expended 44,266 man hours on coastal, sea and estuary patrols in 2013. In addition, IFI staff have fundamentally changed how they conduct their business. They are using arrange of high-tech equipment to target specific "hot spot" areas and increase operational efficiency. Kayaks are being used to conduct silent patrols along rivers and in shallow estuarine areas and to access areas which previously would have been almost impossible to enter unnoticed or using a rigid-hulled inflatable boat, RIB. All-terrain vehicles, ATVs, are being used on some of the country's beaches in order to patrol for illegal bass fishing and personal watercraft - or jetskis - are being used to patrol shallow estuarine areas which would previously have been inaccessible to RIBs. Larger RIBs are being used to launch dawn patrols on coastal areas. Officers go well out to sea under the cover of darkness and then approach coastal areas at first light. It is not only the patrol methodologies which have changed, however. IFI has a 24-hour hotline for the reporting of any illegal activity and also the presence of invasive species. It has also had significant success in the use of other technologies such as night vision scopes, thermal imaging equipment and long-range spotting scopes. In addition, IFI has had some considerable success in detecting illegal nets and fishing activity using its specially-trained patrol dog in a pilot programme which is now being extended throughout the organisation. The unfortunate reality is that while the agency can deploy its resources to best effect and utilise the most up to date technologies, there are still significant numbers of individuals who continue to engage in illegal fishing.