Dr. Greg Forde:

This year has been particularly intriguing for inland waterways because we have such low water levels. We have had three months of drought, except in Dublin which has had more normal rainfall levels, particularly in the coastal parts of Galway, Connemara and the south. As a consequence, salmon have been focused in estuarine areas. From our perspective, this is good as the majority of the stock was stuck in the lower parts of the river. Keeping an eye on it from poaching was easier, therefore. It has allowed us to focus on what we know are the hotspots. We would get local tip-offs from the robust relationships we have with individuals across the country, as well as through our hotline. We have moved away from the traditional approach of selecting one river to patrol on one day and another the following day. Now, it is more intelligence-based patrolling.

As Dr. Ciaran Byrne said earlier, we have moved into using new technologies in combating poaching. Some of these are associated more with armies such as night-vision. The nets we take in the larger estuaries such as those on the Barrow and the Suir are taken in complete darkness as a result. It is difficult to catch an actual poacher. A poacher will set a net when the tide is out, wading across mud to do so. These nets are impossible to see as they are covered by mud. The tide comes in, lifts the net, the net catches the fish. When the tide goes out, the poacher then retrieves the net. No boat is involved and these areas tend to be very exposed. This makes it difficult for staff to lie in wait for individual poachers.

However, much of our work is now done using the methods I described and other technologies that we utilise to help us identify who is coming or going or perhaps to intercept a vehicle rather than race across mud flats, which is no mean feat. These types of incidents have taken place.

Our targeting of poaching is primarily aimed at specific hotspots. This year, 89 cases have come before the courts nationwide and almost 60 further cases are in the pipeline. A large number of individuals are being prosecuted for poaching and pollution cases. After local authority prosecutions related to the payment of rates and so forth, Inland Fisheries Ireland is one of main agencies involved in prosecutions for illegal activities. We also use fixed charge penalty notices, similar to those used by many other bodies, for minor infringements which we do not want to bring to court. We want cases that come to court to be for serious matters that require appropriate redress.

In 2013, we seized 24 km of nets. The trouble is that we will seize perhaps 12 m or 18 m of net at one time and it takes a large number of such seizures to reach a total of 24 km. The reason the figure is so high is that we seize a small number of large nets off the coast. This year, the number of large nets detected off the coast has been significantly lower than last year. This can be attributed to a number of factors, including low water levels which reduced the number of fish running into rivers. As a result, people were not able to see the fish running and we did not get the big pulse of illegal fishing at sea that we normally get.

Most of the nets being seized are estuarine or used in rivers. We also seize a small number of illegal fishing nets on lakes and so forth. Thus far this year, we have seized 13 km of net but the year still has a couple of months to run. The lower figure is indicative of the substantial decline in the yardage of net seized this year compared with the significant seizure in yardage terms made last year.

The best intelligence is the poacher because he has his finger on the pulse. He will know when there is a reasonable run of fish and where he has a chance of catching some of them. The risk he runs is that he must be lucky every time, whereas the opportunity we have is that we must only catch him once. Catching a poacher takes him out of the equation and he is unlikely to be caught again.