Brian O'Shea (Waterford, Labour)
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Question 129: To ask the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources the statistics his Department has regarding the level of illegal salmon fishing; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33646/05]

Brian O'Shea (Waterford, Labour)
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Question 130: To ask the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources the statistics his Department has regarding the level of illegal salmon fishing; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33647/05]

Brian O'Shea (Waterford, Labour)
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Question 133: To ask the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources the efforts which have been made by his Department over the past 30 years to estimate the level of illegal salmon fishing; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33645/05]

Pat Gallagher (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Question Nos. 129, 130 and 133 together.

Under the Fisheries Acts, the central and regional fisheries boards are primarily responsible for the management and protection of fisheries, including measures relating to enforcement. The wild salmon and sea trout tagging scheme, first introduced by the Department through the fisheries boards in 2001, is intended to inter alia identify illegally caught salmon, eliminate sales outlets for such illegal fish and to improve traceability in the distribution chain. The programme provided, for the first time, an estimate of the previously unrecorded illegal catch in Ireland, which at that time, I am advised, was estimated at 32%.

The current mandatory application of carcass tags and logbooks has alleviated some of the difficulty in identifying illegally caught salmon. Approximately 100% of commercial fishing logbooks and 58% of anglers' logbooks were returned to the fisheries boards in 2004. An adjustment to the reported catch to take into account the numbers of fish that have been caught by anglers who have not returned logbooks is made in accordance with international practice.

The national illegal unreported catch of wild salmon is assumed to be approximately 10%. Based on direct monitoring of dealers and knowledge of the local fisheries, this is considered by many fishery inspectors to be an overestimate. A large proportion of all fisheries boards' resources have been and continue to be allocated to the protection of wild salmon. Efforts concentrate on the elimination of the practice of illegal fishing, by both the central and regional boards. These include sea, land and river based protection programmes. The national protection programme is integrated with the navy, air corps and the gardaí. Ongoing monitoring of catch statistics is achieved through the wild salmon and sea trout tagging scheme. Statistics in this regard are detailed in the annual fisheries statistics report of the central fisheries board and the fisheries boards' annual report.