Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent)
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252. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if Inland Fisheries Ireland has any salmon stock information for the Owenae river in County Donegal including catch figures from anglers, smolts leaving the river and salmon returning to the river for the past five years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6236/17]

Seán Kyne (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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The primary index for evaluation of likely returning salmon numbers for any river is the recorded rod (harvest or catch and release) and commercial catch (if any) averaged over the previous 5 years.

I have been informed by Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI) that the Owenea has remained fully open over the past 5 years and a full index based on rod catches is available for the river. The table shows the angling catch for the last available (and verified) five years.

In cases where a river is closed, IFI gathers information on juvenile abundance indices derived from electro-fishing surveys carried out annually as an indicator of stock status. The Owenea, as an open river with good adult stock indices, has not been prioritised for electrofishing surveying, which is focused on those rivers at or below their conservation limit to provide juvenile stock abundance indices where no rod catch data is available. If the juvenile stock indices are above a scientifically established threshold the relevant river may be opened to catch and release angling which will create a rod catch index.

As the Owenea does not require electrofishing, precise information on juvenile abundance is not available. However, the evidence of a good adult spawning stock over five years would indicate a healthy population of juvenile salmon which migrate to sea and return to the Owenea as adults to spawn and replenish the stock.