The Government should waste no time in adopting the recommendations of its expert review group and ban all drift-net fishing from next year. At the same time, it should impose similar catch restrictions on rod anglers and draft-net fishermen along the east and south-east coasts, where salmon stocks are in terminal decline. Nothing short of such radical measures will protect endangered wild Atlantic salmon in these waters. All those involved have a responsibility to co-operate with the authorities.
Such conservation measures should have been adopted years ago, before what the Government's expert group described as a "catastrophic decline" in salmon stocks took place. But political cowardice, a reluctance to provide financial compensation and intense lobbying by drift-net fishermen caused the necessary action to be delayed. Even now, backbench Fianna Fáil TDs are behaving like Opposition spokesmen as they protest their support for off-shore fishermen on the cusp of a general election. The response is reminiscent of their earlier opposition to the introduction of a smoking ban in pubs.
The provision of compensation to those commercial fishermen whose livelihoods will be affected is an important component of this package. The Independent Salmon Group has suggested the establishment of a hardship fund amounting to €30 million, and compensation will be based on a multiple value of the average catch over the past five years. In addition, it recommends a ban on salmon angling in some major rivers where stocks are dangerously low.
It is only right that the pain involved in protecting this endangered species should be shared. Some anglers can be as greedy as any commercial fisherman in their determination to catch and kill what they can, without any consideration of the consequences. Last year, only 6 per cent of fish caught in threatened east coast rivers were returned unharmed by anglers. If salmon stocks are to be preserved in a healthy state, a voluntary system of catch-and-release will have to be encouraged by angling clubs. Such an approach is already the norm in the United States, where angling pressure is intense.
The cost of rehabilitating salmon stocks will go beyond the compensation package for commercial fishermen. Once drift-netting has ended, the release of surplus fish into our rivers and lakes must be carefully monitored. The various fishery boards will have to be funded to ensure that poaching is kept to a minimum. The Garda will have to assist in that task. And angling clubs must play their part. The long-term financial returns should be worthwhile. The value of salmon to the economy, in terms of an increase in the number of foreign visitors, will grow. Equally, the value of wild fish, carefully handled and quickly frozen by estuary netsmen, will be multiples of what they get today. Salmon is a valuable resource which must be protected and carefully managed. The first step, however, is to end drift-netting.