Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent)
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484. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if the Marine Institute plans to recommence the blue fin tuna tag and release scientific scheme off County Donegal; the results to date; his views on the possibility of applying for a quota to allow the development of a recreational fishery; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31324/17]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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With regard to the tag and release Bluefin Tuna scientific research project, my Department made funds available to the Marine Institute, with the support of the European Commission, to actively engage in developing Ireland's involvement in the ICCAT (International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas) Atlantic wide research programme for bluefin tuna.

Intensive preparations in September by the Marine Institute (MI), Stanford University (SU), University of Exeter (UoE) and Acadia University (AU) allowed the Irish Bluefin Tagging Programme to commence off the Co. Donegal coast in the second week of October 2016. The first tagging surveys took place between 9 and 12 October, with the second phase taking place between 22 and 26 October and 28 October and 1 November.

Preliminary reporting from the Marine Institute indicates that the tagging operations were successful with 16 Wildlife Computers MinPAT tags deployed. The data transmitted by these tags gives scientists information about the location of BFT and will help the partners involved in the project to construct migratory patterns using light, temperature and depth data. A number of the tags are continuing to transmit data that will be useful in the broader context of the ICCAT scientific research to assess the abundance and distribution of blue fin tuna in the waters off the Irish coast.  In that context I have asked the Marine Institute to expand the tagging programme for 2017 and this is currently in the planning phase.

In future, it may prove possible to extend the scope of this project and I am committed to actively pursuing any opportunity to improve the scientific knowledge base for the stock of bluefin tuna in the waters off Ireland. I am hopeful that the gathering of such information could help build a case that might allow for an angling catch and release fishery in the future.

Any such proposal would have to be based on a scientific assessment from the Marine Institute and would also need to be developed in conjunction with the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment and Inland Fisheries Ireland who have responsibility for recreational fishing.  Any such case will require the support of the EU Commission and approval of ICCAT.

The current legal situation is that a recreational angling fishery in Ireland for bluefin tuna, even on a catch and release basis, is not possible in the absence of a national bluefin tuna quota. We do not have such a quota and it is extremely unlikely that we could obtain one in the short term as it would involve reducing the share of the Total Allowable Catch of those EU Member States that do have quota and for whom bluefin is an important commercial fishery.

A small bluefin by-catch quota is available to Ireland for use in our Northern Albacore Tuna fishery and Celtic Sea herring fishery. This bycatch quota is also available to other Member States of the European Union without national quotas for bluefin tuna. Under the TAC & Quota Regulation, it is specifically prohibited to utilize this by-catch quota for recreational and/or sport fisheries, even in the context of a catch and release programme.