Sir, - On behalf of my board, I wish to compliment Denis Coghlan on his excellent article, "Leap now to turn the tide on wild salmon stocks" (August 26th).
While the board fully supports the proposed tagging scheme for wild salmon, it believes that more radical measures are now required for the effective conservation of stocks. In recent years, this region, which broadly includes the Mayo/Sligo area, accounted for 25 to 33 per cent of the national salmon catch. This year, the total catch in the region will be one of the lowest, if not the lowest, recorded in the past 20 years. As stated in Mr Coghlan's article, many drift net fishermen abandoned salmon fishing this year and turned to other species. Without doubt, many of them would be willing to surrender their licences in return for realistic compensation.
Such a scheme would result in an immediate reduction in the number of available licences. Existing controls on fishing effort or, alternatively, the introduction of quotas, could easily ensure that remaining fishermen did not simply take bigger catches. The board has already advocated the introduction of a voluntary buyout scheme and is again putting forward this as a formal proposal to the National Salmon Commission and to the Minister for the Marine and Natural Resources, Mr Frank Fahy.
In addition to curtailment of commercial fishing, the board is also advocating conservation measures by anglers. It has recently introduced lower bag limits on its own fisheries and has requested all fishery owners and angling clubs throughout the region to introduce catch and release policies on their fisheries with effect from September 1st. It has also urged the various fisheries to introduce conservation measures for spring salmon with effect from the start of the 2001 season. - Yours, etc.,
Vincent Roche, Chief Executive Officer, North Western Regional Fisheries Board, Ballina, Co Mayo.