Has the Government averted another angling war? "The jury is still out," says one of the main angling organisations, which has given a qualified welcome to the initiatives on salmon management and conservation announced late last week by the Minister for the Marine, Mr Fahey.
The Federation of Irish Salmon and Sea Trout Anglers (FISSTA) has suspended part of its protest campaign as a result of the Minister's statement at the Iasc Conservation Awards in Galway. As reported in this column last week, the organisation representing 19,000 anglers had said it would no longer co-operate with any of the initiatives introduced by the National Salmon Commission last year, and had ordered its affiliated members to withdraw from all State and regional boards.
Its main grounds of objection were lack of controls on commercial fishing, and a tenure problem in certain rivers owned by the State. The tenure problems remain unresolved, according to its spokesman, Mr Noel Carr, but it will resume co-operation and intends to "wait and see" how the new quota system for commercial fishing is applied.
FISSTA is delighted that the Minister has announced restrictions on the commercial sector, although he stopped short of a total buy-out of netsmen sought by the anglers. The Minister, who emphasised that he had spent "two years listening" to all shades of opinion, said that the quotas would be set "by reference to the scientific advice for stocks" in the catchments and "other relevant factors".
Mr Carr said he hoped that "scientific advice" rather than political lobbying would be the main criterion on which quotas were applied.
The Minister's speech at the Iasc awards has received a mixed response, with "seismic" being the common response from several who have been associated with the thorny issue of wild salmon over the past two decades. Curiously, it was delivered in advance of a meeting last weekend in Galway of his advisory body, the National Salmon Commission.
In firmly ruling out a buy-out of driftnet licences, the Minister emphasised that the stock problem was far too complex to be pinned on one cause alone. Climate change, pollution, environmental degradation and seal predation were other factors, he said. Significantly, he said that he believed there was a case for population control of seals and would raise this with his colleague, the Minister for Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands, Ms de Valera. It marks the first time that this factor has been acknowledged by a marine minister,in spite of scientific studies pointing to this as a problem.
The decision to impose quotas on a district basis - with no complementary restrictions on anglers - has been criticised by the inshore fisheries sector, including the Irish Fishermen's Organisation and the Irish Traditional Fishermen's Asssociation, representing netsmen. However, the Minister highlighted lack of co-operation by the recreational sector with existing measures, including tagging, and said that everyone had to take a share of the pain. The National Salmon Commission has asked angling representatives to come up with proposals for their sector in time for the commission's next meeting.
An indication of the areas in which quotas could be most severe was given at the Iasc awards ceremony in Galway, when both Dr Ken Whelan and Mr Neil O Maoileidigh of the Marine Institute spoke of the state of the stocks.
Fishery areas have been divided into four categories, with the most-seriously-overexploited category being applied to Galway, Bangor Erris in Mayo, Letterkenny and Ballyshannon in Donegal and Waterford.
Lismore, Co Waterford, was identified as in the third category, requiring significant reduction, while Shannon and Sligo were described as category two, that is, areas where the catch should be reduced. The least serious category, where catches should not increase, was applied to Dundalk, Dublin, Cork, Kerry, Connemara and Ballinakill.
Quotas may seem unpalatable, but there is a view within the National Salmon Commission that it could weed out the genuine commercial fisherman from the "cowboy". One seasoned observer remarked that genuine fishermen with a proven track record would have "something to sell" if a buy-out of nets was introduced at a later stage.
The scientists, upon whose advice quotas will be set, appear to be taking a positive approach. Dr Whelan said that climate change was proving to have a more dramatic effect on feeding grounds than originally thought.