THE GOVERNMENT has submitted its proposals on banning all eel fishing in State waters to the European Commission for approval.
Minister of State Seán Power said yesterday that the ban must be implemented from July 1st if approved by the EU. The European eel stock was now "outside safe biological limits", he said, and focus was on conservation.
Eel catchers have reacted angrily, stating that a combination of factors, including hydro-electricity and pollution, had led to stock depletion. Ireland is attempting to be "an over-zealous" EU member state in imposing the ban when other EU counterparts are not, according to the Shannon Eel Fishermen's Association.
Eels are a common EU resource, spending part of their lives in freshwater and part in the ocean. In contrast to fellow migrants, the salmon and sea trout, eels spawn in the Sargasso Sea and return to rivers and lakes to feed and grow.
Several years ago, the European Commission directed member states to draw up management plans, based on ensuring 40 per cent of eel "biomass" escaped to the sea. Ireland's plan proposes ceasing commercial eel fishing and closing the market, improving water quality of eel habitats and taking measures to ensure upstream migration of juvenile eel at barriers and mitigation of the impact of hydro-electric power.
About 100 tonnes of eel are harvested in the State by some 295 eel licence holders, and the total value of the catch is between €500,000 and €750,000. The ban will apply on the Shannon, Corrib and Lough Erne, but will not affect the island's largest eel fishery on Lough Neagh.
The eel fishermen claim that they were only invited to sit on a Government working group when the key decision had already been taken. A spokeswoman for Mr Power's Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources said there was "full public consultation".
Eel fishermen will be able to tender for trapping and transport on the Shannon, and the Central Fisheries Board is establishing a diversification scheme for affected catchers, the spokeswoman said.