Quotas on commercial catches of wild salmon which had been expected before the general election have been published this week by the Minister for the Marine, Mr Fahey.
The Minister has also allocated funding to protect water quality, and to ensure installation of 14 fish counters on rivers to measure stocks, as part of a new management regime for wild salmon.
The quotas, which were signalled in January, will apply to 17 fishery districts nationally. The aim is to ensure that there is a 7.4 per cent drop on last year's figure of 237,099 salmon caught by the commercial sector.
Fishery areas in the Minister's own constituency of Galway West - including Galway, Ballinakill, and Connemara - are among areas where restrictions will apply, while Cork, Kerry, Ballina, Co Mayo and Limerick have been allocated more fish - on the basis of scientific evidence on the state of stocks.
Fishery district committee will be able to grant "safety days" to fishermen to compensate them for time lost due to bad weather, the Minister said this week.
The measure has been introduced in consultation with the National Salmon Commission, and is a follow-up to last year's regulations on tagging and logbooks for anglers.
Restrictions for anglers include a ban on the sale of rod caught salmon, and a bag limit of one fish per angler per day before the month of June.
The commercial quotas have been criticised by the Irish Salmon Traditional Netsmen's Association. It says it supports restrictions for all sectors of the fishery, in the interests of conservation, but feels its members are being unfairly targeted
The maximum number of wild salmon or sea trout which may be taken by commercial fishing in the following fishery districts are: Dublin 978 fish; Wexford 3,508; Waterford 14,201; Lismore, Co Waterford 13,455; Cork 29,728; Kerry 32,970; Limerick 20,916; Galway 5,750; Connemara 4,336; Ballinakill, Co Galway 9,453; Bangor, Co Mayo 8,211; Ballina, Co Mayo 28,635; Sligo 7,015; Ballyshannon, Co Donegal 12,938; Letterkenny, Co Donegal 20,850; Dundalk, Co Louth 1,909; Drogheda, Co Louth 4,796.
