Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Inland Fisheries Ireland, IFI, is the State agency responsible for the conservation, protection, management and development of Ireland’s inland fisheries and sea angling resources. It manages salmon stocks on an individual river basis as each of Ireland’s 147 salmon rivers, including river sections and estuaries, has its own genetically unique stock of salmon. It is supported in its management role by scientific advice from Ireland’s independent standing scientific committee, SSC, which comprises scientists from a range of organisations. It also has regard to advice from the International Council for the Exploration of the Seas and EU legislation, notably the habitats directive, under which salmon habitats are protected.

Scientific and management assessments of each of the distinct stocks, including the River Feale, are carried out each year. IFI engages in extensive stock monitoring which feeds into the SSC’s annual reviews. The SSC uses data, including counter data, rod catch, catch and release and any commercial catch data in the previous five years to calculate an average over that period which is used to estimate expected returns for the coming year. The use of a five-year average ensures a good or bad year does not have a disproportionate impact on the stock assessment in any single year.

The annual wild salmon and sea trout tagging scheme regulations, made under the lnland Fisheries Act 2010, provide for the management of Ireland’s wild salmon and sea trout fisheries by lFl. Specifically, the regulations provide for the surplus to the established conservation limit, if any, which may be harvested either commercially or by rod and line from the rivers identified as open for harvest. The regulations are revised each year taking account of advice from IFI, the standing scientific committee and any submission received during a 30-day statutory public consultation period. Statutory notice was given on 14 November of the intention to make the draft wild salmon and sea trout tagging scheme regulations 2018 to provide for the management of the wild salmon and sea trout fisheries by IFI from 1 January 2019. A copy of the regulations which are made every year is available on my Department’s website and open for public inspection at the offices of the inland fisheries division of the Department in County Cavan and at Inland Fisheries Ireland offices throughout the country.

The scientific group uses several data sets in assessing the salmon stock on the River Feale. The stock is assessed using the fish counter located at Scartleigh dam. The commercial catch in the river and the number of salmon caught by rod below the counter and killed are added to the fish counter figure to calculate the total annual salmon return for the river. The counter is a one-channel counter operated on the crump weir which was installed to assist fish passage over the large weir. I am advised that the counter provides consistently accurate data. A new camera was installed early in the summer of 2017 for counter verification purposes. As advised by local Inland Fisheries Ireland staff who monitor the operation of the counter, the counter figure is increased to take account of the very small number of salmon that may bypass the counter by going over the weir in high water conditions or ascending an old fish pass channel on the north bank. According to local IFI staff, salmon generally do not ascend the weir in high water conditions. It should be noted that 2018 was a very dry year and that there were very few occasions on which the Scartleigh weir was overtopped.

The scientific group advises on the one-sea-winter and multi-sea-winter stock components. This year the River Feale had a one-sea-winter surplus of 544 fish and a multi-sea-winter surplus of 114. The run of salmon recorded on the fish counter over the five-year period from 2013 to 2017 was used to assess the salmon stock and provide scientific advice for 2018. Multi-sea-winter salmon caught between 1 January and 31 May returning after spending two or more years at the sea are larger and older fish which usually return in the springtime and are often referred to as spring salmon.

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