Wild Atlantic salmon caught along the south-west coast should be "a niche product" attracting top prices, commercial fishing groups in Kerry and Cork said yesterday.
At the launch of a plan to secure their future, fishermen in the south-west said commercial salmon fishing was "a way of life" that could not be quantified only in financial terms.
The plan "Our Marine Salmon Fishery: Sustainable vision for the future" was drawn up because the livelihoods of commercial fishermen "were under threat from vested interests", the foreword stated.
Rationalisation proposals to sustain the industry include cutting the numbers of licences for drift fishing and draft fishing voluntarily, extending BIM-led quality controls, having better European focused marketing, and achieving full potential for wild salmon in terms of market value.
An extended season of smaller catches was also suggested.
"It is patently not good policy to have a tourist product, wild salmon, unavailable after July when the tourist season is busiest in August," it said.
An early retirement scheme for fishermen along the lines of that offered to farmers, partial set-asides, a look at "fish ranching" and salmon museums are among the schemes suggested.
Because of quota restrictions there were too many licences in both sectors in Cork and in the draft sector in Kerry.
With better prices, 145 of the 200 licences could remain viable.
Quotas for both districts this year would be reduced from almost 70,000 four years ago to 46,000.
Group chairman John O'Shea asserted: "We have healthy rivers in the south-west. We have a healthy stock and the scientists all tell us so. Fishermen have taken a lot of pain. Hopefully now it is payback time.
"We are not looking for an increasing amount of fish, just to manage things more profitably."
Salmon fishermen were naturally competitive, but they now realised they had to come together to survive , he said.
Chief executive of the Irish Fish Producers Organisation Lorcan Ó Cinnéide, launching the booklet, said people whose families had fished commercially for hundreds of years had "an absolute right" to remain in the business.