Atlantic salmon fishermen based off the coast of Clare have proposed a five-year setaside programme with the Department of the Marine in return for an annual compensation fund of €188,000.
The conservation offer would result in 11,400 wild salmon being left in their habitat annually. It has been proposed as an alternative to the Department's new quota system for commercial salmon fishermen which has led to protests in Mayo, Galway and Cork.
The 16 licensed drift netters who have proposed the scheme fish between Hags Head, near Liscannor, Co Clare, and Kerry Head to a limit of 12 miles. They account for the majority of the salmon caught in the Salmon Regional Fisheries Board region.
A further 161 fishermen are licensed to fish in the Shannon Estuary area .
Their offer of a €188,000 annual fund is based on the fishermen's own estimate of an average annual catch of 11,400 fish, which would have a wholesale price of €16.50 each. This amounts to about 60 per cent of the total catch for the Shannon region. They are being supported by the Shannon Regional Fisheries Board.
The fishermen's figure is at odds with the Department's quota figure of 9,2531 fish, which, it estimates, is 5 per cent less than their average catch over the past five years.
The fund, if agreed by the Department, would amount to an average payment per fisherman of €11,750 annually. The Minister for the Marine, Mr Fahey, has indicated that he will consider setaside schemes.
Mr Gearóid Lyons, a representative of the commercial fishermen, said the fund would amount to a payment to carry out other fishing activities. "With the quota, regardless of there being a good run of fish, it is not commercially viable," he said.
In March the National Salmon Commission endorsed the Department's quotas on wild salmon catches. These amount to cuts of up to 15 per cent of catches in 17 commercial fishery districts. Shannon and Sligo were among the least affected, with 5 per cent cuts, while Waterford, Galway, Bangor, Co Mayo, and Letterkenny, Co Donegal, received a 15 per cent cut.