Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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191. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the definition of the type of gear or equipment identified as being capable of use for trolling surface fishing lines for any species of fish in the opinion of Inland Fisheries Ireland under the Control of Sea Angling methods for certain species of fish bye-law No. 981 of 2020.; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26896/20]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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Bye-law 981 of 2020 sets out that any equipment capable, in the opinion of IFI, of use for trolling surface lines for any species of fish specified in the bye-law may not, without authorisation, be used or carried on board a vessel. The prohibition includes all equipment with this capability unless it is authorised.

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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192. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment his plans to open the tuna chart program to vessels and fishers currently not authorised under the program; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26897/20]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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The Tuna Chart Programme is a scientific data gathering initiative carried out under the rules of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna (ICCAT).  Its purpose is the collection of high quality data with good temporal and spatial coverage, to contribute to ICCAT’s scientific knowledge and management of the species.The programme operates on a strictly catch, tag and release basis and the platform used for the data collection is sea angling vessels.  The programme is designed to avoid mortalities and I am happy to confirm that over 200 fish were tagged during 2019 and no mortalities occurred.

The Programme is jointly overseen by the Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine, my Department, Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI), the Marine Institute and the Sea Fisheries Protection Authority (SFPA).  The programme facilitates scientific observers on board authorised vessels.

This Group agreed a pilot programme in 2019 in which 15 vessels were authorised to participate. The programme is also being operated in 2020 for which the number of authorised vessels increased to 23.  The programme is subject to ICCAT rules and consent. It is reviewed annually in the context of seeking continued ICCAT consent.

An authorisation for any vessel applies only for the research period in the relevant year. A new application process is required for each year and there is no automatic roll-over for existing authorised vessels. Therefore any new application process will continue to be open to vessels not currently authorised and all applications are assessed against agreed qualifying criteria published in advance.