Mairéad Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
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128. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if it is national policy to conserve invasive escaped farmed salmon in special area of conservation waters that are only open to catch-and-release angling and closed fisheries; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41136/24]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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Notwithstanding genetic differences, farmed salmon are still of the same species as wild salmon. They are therefore not listed as invasive species in special area of conservation waters within Ireland. While it is not national policy to conserve escaped farmed salmon, it is our national policy to conserve wild salmon. As such, any measures taken by Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI) to reduce the impact of recently escaped farmed salmon have been carefully considered to not undermine the protection of wild salmon.

To this end and since becoming aware of the escape of farmed salmon in Killary Harbour, IFI has been monitoring for escaped farmed salmon and has alerted anglers and fishery owners throughout the region to be vigilant for the potential presence of farmed fish in rivers. IFI has also requested that all encounters with potential farmed salmon be reported.

In catch-and-release designated fisheries where suspected farmed fish have been reported to be present, IFI assigned its authorised officers to patrol and liaise with anglers to enable any samples to be retained. However, verification of farmed salmon based only on visual inspection of the exterior of the fish can in some instances prove very difficult and full verification of the farm origin of a fish is only possible through more detailed investigation (scale reading, internal dissection, genetic analyses of tissue samples). This is due in large part to farmed salmon not having any clear visual external markers that distinguish them from wild salmon with a high degree of certainty.

If the harvest and retention of “suspected” farmed salmon in catch-and-release or closed fisheries was permitted, it would increase the likelihood that wild salmon may be culled in error and potentially undermines the protection and conservation of wild salmon, particularly on those catch-and-release fisheries which are not currently exceeding their conservation limits.