Dr. Paddy Gargan:

There is an international organisation called the North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organization, NASCO, of which Ireland, through the EU, is a member. We attend the annual meetings and there is much discussion about problems at sea. There was a major research project over four years called the SALSEA project. Ireland was involved with that and it considered problems in the sea with regard to marine survival. There was some evidence that large mackerel and herring fisheries were catching juvenile salmon as a by-catch. That is being investigated. The SALSEA programme was not able to pinpoint the exact reason salmon are not surviving at sea to the extent that they were 25 years ago. Fish were captured at sea by trawling and Marine Institute vessels were involved with that. It is difficult to take in the entire ecosystem, as the salmon go to Greenland, the Faroes and the north Norwegian Sea. There are changes in the oceans and sea temperatures. With all the dynamics in the sea, it is very difficult to pinpoint exactly what is causing reduced marine survival.