Salmon netsmen, bearing giant models of the silvery fish, took to the streets of Galway on the weekend of April 27th and have voted to continue their protests over the quota system introduced by the Minister for the Marine, Mr Fahey.
The Minister did not meet the protesters, numbering about 500, who came from all parts of the coastline to his constituency to vent their anger. He was strongly criticised for introducing "draconian" and "dictatorial" regulations as part of a management regime for wild salmon.
The members of the Irish Salmon Traditional Netsmen's Association (ISTNA) have stressed that they are not opposed to the introduction of quotas, if they are applied also to fishery owners and anglers.
They say that in singling out the commercial sector, the measures place "the onus for conservation" entirely on one group. This represents "unjust treatment of families and communities", whose livelihood is being jeopardised, they said.
Mr Charlie O'Donnell, ISTNA representative in Galway, said that the Minister did not realise the "depth of anger and resentment" which the regulations were generating. Several protests have already been held in ports, and regional fisheries board meetings have been picketed.
The quotas on wild salmon catches were signalled earlier this year and were recently endorsed by the National Salmon Commission.
In a significant shift in State policy on management of wild salmon - also interpreted as a bid to ensure that it did not become a general election issue - Mr Fahey rejected proposals for a Government buy-out of commercial salmon licences. However, he outlined the new quota system which would apply to commercial fishermen.
At that function in Galway last January, the Minister also suggested that predation by seals must be tackled, and said he recognised that there were "specific problems in specific areas" where the seal population had grown.
The quota system involves reductions of up to 15 per cent in salmon catches in certain commercial fishery districts, totalling 17 in all. Waterford, Galway, Bangor in Mayo and Letterkenny in Co Donegal, are among the areas hardest hit, with reductions of 15 per cent; while Ballyshannon, Co Donegal, Lismore, Co Waterford, and Ballina, Co Mayo, are to be reduced by 10 per cent.
The healthiest fishery districts are Balllinakill, Connemara; Dundalk and Drogheda in Co Louth; Wexford; Kerry; Cork; and Dublin,with no change to catches proposed, while Sligo and Shannon will have reductions of 5 per cent.
The baseline has been based on an average catch over a five-year period from 1997 to 2001. Fishermen off the Clare coast have now proposed a five-year set-aside programme as an alternative to the quota system.
The proposal, as reported in this newspaper on Saturday, involves a compensation fund of €188,000 annually, and has the support of the Shannon Regional Fisheries Board.
The Minister has also aroused opposition among inshore communities - most notably Aranmore island in Co Donegal - over the new regulatory system for small vessels. His party colleagues, Minister of State for Arts, Heritage, the Gaeltacht and the Islands, Ms Mary Coughlan, and the Connacht-Ulster MEP, Mr Pat the Cope Gallagher, have called on him to withdraw the scheme, due to the financial burden involved.
The Fine Gael marine spokesman, Mr Alan Dukes, has called on the Government to reject EU Commission proposals which would cut modernisation aid for fishing vessels.
"Our fishing fleet needs further modernisation to enable it to complete. We are also entitled to a greater share of the fish around our coasts, even if conservation requirements mean that the total fishing effort has to be reduced," Mr Dukes said.
EU Commission proposals for a review of the Common Fisheries Policy are believed to include cancellation of all grant-aid for fishing vessels.
The Department of the Marine has denied that a Government scheme to grant-aid new fishing vessels has already been scrapped.