Noel Wilkins outlines a scheme to allow the angler to continue to enjoy his hobby, but at a cost that reflects the value of wild salmon and recognises the cost of any buy-out of commercial fishing
A ban on the commercial salmon net fisheries is under consideration by a small expert group. Some think that the commercial net fisheries may soon be terminated and they expect that this will be beneficial to the salmon stock and ultimately to the public. But will it?
Complete closure of the commercial net fisheries could have the double effect of possibly enhancing the spawning stock size (hopefully, but this is not scientifically certain) and of granting the sole right of capturing salmon to the rod anglers.
Since the sale of rod-caught salmon is currently illegal, this means that there would no longer be wild salmon available for sale to the public or to the restaurant trade. In effect, an important public national resource - the wild salmon - would be handed over totally to the salmon anglers and their families.
Since the cost of managing, monitoring and researching this important resource is funded through taxation, is this transfer of public rights to a small group really in the national interest?
Even today there is a thriving illegal sale of rod-caught wild salmon. Is it not likely that this "trade" will simply increase as net-caught wild salmon disappear and rod-caught fish are the only wild salmon available? And how exactly is the salmon resource helped by closing a public, well-regulated, legal, commercial fishery that gives a livelihood to coastal fishermen and replacing it with an amateur, illegal trade in rod-caught salmon?
Regulation of large numbers of anglers spread over many miles of rivers is notoriously difficult, not to mention the control of poaching in inland waters. Most anglers are legal and fair-minded, but who can control the unscrupulous?
It cannot be denied that there exists a demand not only for sport angling but also for "wild" salmon to be available to the public and to the restaurant business. Both are important to the economy, especially in rural areas; both are legitimate and natural expectations in a country as "green" as Ireland.
We should, as far as is consistent with the sustainability of the salmon, try to make it possible to enjoy both. So, if the resource is to be given over entirely to the anglers, and bona-fide commercial net fishermen are to face another cut in their livelihood, it seems only fair that adequate steps be taken to ensure that the wider public interest is protected in some way.
In that event, a scheme along the following lines, modified from the existing carcass tag regulations, could ensure that the angling community contributes in a realistic, fair and transparent way to the very real cost of managing the resource, while ensuring some availability of wild salmon to those interested in consuming them:
Salmon rod angling licences will be of one kind only - national, all-area, all-season licences;
each licence will cost €150 (index-linked) and will have one carcass tag provided with it. That tag will be colour-coded so that any salmon carrying the tag will not be saleable;
holders of a current angling licence may purchase further tags at €100 each (index linked). These tags will be colour-coded so that any salmon carrying one of these tags will be saleable;
no person may fish for salmon unless he (she) is the holder of a current licence and has on their person at the time of angling an unused "non-sale" or "saleable" tag.
all salmon captured by rod must be carcass-tagged immediately with one or other kind of tag. Even if the angler chooses not to sell a salmon, it must be tagged with a "saleable" tag if he (she) has no "non-sale" tag.
Local regulations may specify those rivers that are so threatened that no "saleable" tags may be used when fishing them and those others, more healthy, where saleable tags will be permitted. On the former rivers, only "non-sale" tags will suffice to meet the requirement that the angler have a licence and tag on his (her) person.
Such a scheme allows the angler to continue to enjoy his hobby, but at a cost that better reflects the value of wild salmon at this time and that also recognises the cost to the State of any buy-out of commercial fishing.
It allows for the sale of rod-caught salmon by anglers or by fishery owners giving some facility for wild salmon to be made available to the public (although at a realistically high price). It is not at all scientifically certain that a complete ban on net fishing is either wise or necessary.
If it is, though, then those who benefit exclusively from the ban must surely be prepared to shoulder a realistic part of the costs of sustaining the diminishing resource.
Noel Wilkins is former professor of zoology at NUI Galway, and first chair of the National Salmon Commission