Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 22 October 2014

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications

Depletion of Inland Fish Stocks and Impact of Estuary Poaching: Inland Fisheries Ireland

10:45 am

Dr. Greg Forde:

I will respond as quickly as possible. With regard to the protection officers, the benefits of the technological era have been twofold. One is that we have brought our staff around to a new way of thinking and being cuter about what they do. We did that for two reasons: first, to be more efficient and, second, to cover for the fact that where there used to be a team of five there is now three and in terms of walking or whatever, the same amount of ground simply cannot be covered. Instead of walking one bank of the river, the personnel come down the river in a kayak, which allows them check anglers on both sides of the river. The anglers did not see that coming because they are looking down river trying to catch a fish and the next thing they are being tapped on the shoulder. Not only are we now able to patrol the river with one person, but we are covering both banks.

We have a complement of seasonal staff who come on for our critical period. Thankfully, we have managed to hold on to them throughout this period. We have 34 additional staff who join our ranks for a six month contract each year. They are vital. They are also younger blood. As the members can see, I have more grey hairs than brown ones. There are many members of staff who are older and they are not able to chase poachers as quickly as they could in the past. These young men come along in the summer bubbling with enthusiasm. They lift the morale and the capacity in terms of what we can do, so we are getting a good deal of additional benefit. However, I would benefit from more staff. We welcome the measure in the budget which will allow us to recruit within our budget. We will be examining key problem areas where staff have fallen below a safe level in which to operate.

Regarding pollution, it normally breaks down around 50-50 between industrial-municipal pollution and deliberate and accidental pollution events. We have to be very clear about when we prosecute for pollution. If significant numbers of fish are killed in a fish kill and we have what we believe is a strong case, we take it to court. It may be that a wall failed on a silage effluent or whatever. That is unfortunate but the policy is that we will prosecute where a fish kill has occurred. We take fish kill cases to court where we identify the source of the fish kill.

There would be the deliberate cases also, which are highlighted clearly in a court. Thankfully, the judges are incredibly robust in dealing with matters where they believe someone has deliberately killed fish. Some people think it is very simple to go out and stock the river but in the river is a stock of wild fish. They have grown there throughout their lives. They are genetically unique in the area, and they have adapted to whatever is in the area. One cannot go in and throw fish out of a fish pond on a fish farm. They are totally different, and they will not adapt to the area. They will be available for anglers. They will take them out but nature must be allowed to take its course. In terms of a fish kill that wipes out a river, it might be six or seven years before that river establishes a proper population of fish throughout it. We need to be very aware of that.

On drift netting, a compensatory measure was brought in. The members will appreciate that at the time quite a number of the fishermen were prepared to retire. They were at an appropriate age. Another measure was introduced to allow them go into a different area but there were not enough different areas available for people in a rural area off Porturlin or somewhere like that where there is not much else to do. There was not a lot else made available to them, and I concur with the Chairman that there was not much else for them. There was a gun put to the head of fisheries regarding the protection of salmon and on the idea of indiscriminate drift-net fisheries, Ireland was about to be blown out of the water, so to speak, in Europe. We are now setting the standard and other countries not too far from Ireland are coming under scrutiny from Europe in terms of how they are managing these mixed stocks in the sea. Unfortunately, there was not an option here. Opportunities were given to some people but not everybody was in a position to diversify. In terms of the opportunities in rural areas in Connemara, I am from Connemara and I live in Connemara so I would be aware of some of the people in a similar boat.

In regard to the River Moy, it is the salmon capital. It has a lot of fish. In years like this one when the people upstream have not been catching fish, they believe everything is going on downstream from them, and they blame everybody else for taking too many fish. There was a bit of a reality check in the Moy this year. I do not believe it has performed as well as other years. We have been working on the counters at the cribs in Ballina. We have put a counter into another of the gaps so that we might get a better handle on the number of fish going upstream, but this year was disappointing.

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