Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent)
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100. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if part of SI 585/2018 Wild Salmon and Sea Trout Tagging Scheme Regulations 2018 (details supplied) will be amended to allow fishers to record salmon or sea trout caught and released and the sex of fish caught and retained and or caught and released; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18253/20]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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The Wild Salmon and Seatrout Tagging Scheme regulations, which are made every year to take account of stock changes require anglers to record salmon and sea trout that are caught and whether they are retained and released and to return these records to IFI.  The commercial salmon fishery does not operate on a catch and release basis. However, where the annual commercial quota has been reached, or the number of tags in the commercial fisherman’s possession are exhausted, the regulations require cessation of fishing activity and any surplus salmon to be released alive.  Any accidental mortalities in excess of the available quota or tag allocation must be surrendered to IFI.

It is extremely difficult to accurately determine the sex of salmon and sea trout by external visual inspection and for many freshly caught fish internal examination for accurate sex determination would be necessary.  Even internal examination to determine sex requires very specific expertise.

The independent Technical Expert Group on Salmon has already carried out a scientific analysis of the gender distribution in the Irish salmon stock and compiled a National index of the proportion of males and females. This analysis indicates that 60% of one sea winter fish and 85% of multi sea winter fish are classed as female. These proportions are used by scientists to estimate the number of eggs laid in the calculation of salmon conservation limits.