Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry South, Independent)
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Question 48: To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if he will extend the salmon and trout fishing season to the end of October; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12440/11]

Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)
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The 2009 Wild Salmon and Sea Trout Fisheries Statistics Report outlined that salmon catches were less than a tenth of what they were in 2001. The close season for fishing for salmon and sea trout is based on scientific and management advices aimed at conserving and protecting wild stocks. The present position, underpinned by legislation, is that nationally all salmon angling finishes on September 30th. With the exception of six rivers, angling for sea trout in the Kerry District finishes on the 12th October. In the six rivers the season closes on September 30th.

Section 137 of the Fisheries (Consolidation) Act 1959 Act states ''that the annual close season for angling for salmon shall for the purposes of the Act , be the period commencing on the 13th October in each year'', this protects stocks during the spawning season. A decision to extend any fishing for salmon until the end of October would require changes to the Primary Legislation.

Extensions for the fishing of salmon and/or sea trout until the 12th October would have to be considered on a river by river basis. Recently I requested Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI), to review the temporal management of the wild salmon and sea trout fishery and to report to me with recommendations for permissible adjustments to apply in the 2012 season that will enable the most economically advantageous exploitation of the total allowable catch by the commercial and recreational fisheries while ensuring that stocks are not put at risk.