Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Question 358: To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the rationale for the decision to ban eel fishing here with the approval of the European Commission; the reasoning behind establishing a working group that did not include representatives from the eel fishing community, until strong representations were made from various fishery boards for their inclusion; the most recent eel stock survey data that are in his possession; and the way that compares to stock numbers over the past five years. [3123/09]

Seán Power (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)
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Recent scientific advice issued by the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), indicated that the European eel fish stock is so depleted that it is now outside safe biological limits. Subsequently, the EU brought forward Council Regulation 1100/2007 establishing measures for the recovery of the stock of European eel. The purpose of the Regulation is to put in place a new framework for the protection and sustainable use of the stock of European eel and to achieve recovery of the stock to previous high levels.

A Working Group was established at the outset to prepare a National Eel Management Plan (EMP) as required under the Regulation. The Working Group comprised officials from the Departments and agencies responsible for providing advice on the management of the fishery, i.e. the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, the Central and Regional Fisheries Boards, Marine Institute, Bórd Iascaigh Mhara, ESB and the National University of Ireland, Galway.

A detailed fact sheet was circulated to all interested parties by the Regional Fisheries Boards in March 2008 to advise of the approach being adopted to comply with the Regulation. The elected eel representatives on the Regional Fisheries Boards were kept informed by the fisheries boards' officials on progress towards preparation of the EMP. Conservation bye-laws were introduced in May 2008, which capped the number of licences and restricted the season. A public consultation was launched on the draft EMP from 1 August 2008. Information meetings were organised in each region by the Regional Fisheries Boards during the consultation period, which ended on 15 September 2008 and some 16 submissions were received. These were largely from eel fishermen representatives and, while acknowledging the decline in stocks, sought to continue fishing. A number of eel fishing representatives joined the Eel Working Group in October 2008.

Having considered the scientific and management advices the Working Group recommended a number of management measures in order to reach the targets set in the Regulation including closure of the commercial and recreational fishery from 2009. I am advised that surveys of eel stocks were undertaken by the Marine Institute (MI) throughout the 1960s into the mid 1990s. Eels were also recorded in the mixed stock surveys undertaken by the Central and Regional Fisheries Boards. The MI has funded in 2008, a multi-agency project to collate all available eel survey data into a national database which will support assessments of the stock into the future.

In order to inform decision making in the preparation of the EMPs, scientists developed a stock assessment model based on current best available data. This model was developed to estimate the historic quantity of silver eels being produced in the absence of human mortality and also to estimate current escapement and the impact of reductions in fishing and hydropower mortality on recovery time.

Current stock assessments were based on time series of juvenile recruitment, adjusted fisheries catch returns, estimates of turbine mortalities, silver eel escapements, sizes and growth rates of brown and silver eel. Graphs showing the outputs from the stock assessments are available in Section 5.2.4.4 "Summary of individual RBD Targets" in the draft Eel Management Plan, which can be found at www.dcenr.gov.ie.

The outputs from these stock assessments are, I understand, consistent with 2001-2007 observed data and when the last 25 years of poor recruitment is taken into account, it is clear that the adult eel stock in Irish waters will continue to decline for at least the next decade.