Irish Salmon and seatrout anglers made once again another major concession to conserve the salmon numbers by proposing to the ban on the sale of future rod caught fish. We now await a national buyout of drifnets by the Minister.

After a year long conservation campaign by the Federation of Irish Salmon and Seatrout Anglers, Minister Fahey announced in Galway on Thurs 19th the long awaited 'ban on the sale of rod caught fish' to be implemented on August 1st 2001 to combat illegal netting by taking away their market for wild Atlantic salmon.

Chairman of FISSTA Noel Carr said that the FISSTA anti tagging campaign of January and February were now vindicated following this announcement by the Minister which he had already described as geuine fears for consevation. At the time, FISSTA was the only organisation to oppose the old tagging proposals and came in for strong criticism from many quarters who failed to see the pitfalls of such an ineffective and damgerous scheme. By February 3rd when nearly 3,000 FISSTA anglers marched in Galway, Cork and Kerry it was clear that the campaign was gathering momentum as the public realised our genuine fears which we summarised into 5 concerns. The Minister met members of the Executive in Galway that day (3.3.01) and accepted our proposal to implement the ban on the sale of rodcaught fish as announced this week. This proposal was designed to plug the huge blackhole and to prevent poaching by illegal netsmen using rodtags. As this market is now effectively closed down from the 31st July there is now a chance that up to 50,000 salmon will be saved from the poachers nets. However, the real conservation measure to adress the dwindling stocks is obviously our number one priority - the cessation of the driftnetting in which nearly 300,000 salmon are killed annually. FISSTA call on Minister Fahey to reconsider this policy of indecision now and declare a national buyout of all licences under the North Atlantic Salmon Fund model which has proven successfull in every other country it has been implemented. "

Minister Fahey said "I want the salmon fishing sector to have a future. A future which delivers for fishermen, the salmon resource and the coastal and rural communities which it helps to support. We must strike a reasonable and sensible balance which is workable for commercial and recreational fishermen and for salmon stocks. Pain for all will lead to gain for all in the long run."

Unfortunately, once again the lobbying resources of the commercial sector have succeeded in delaying decisions on the imposition of any restrictions on drifnetting at the expense of the wild atlantic salmon stocks.

The Minister expressed dissapointment at the low price level (some as low a£2 per lb) achieved by netsmen and said that "my preferred strategy is to reduce the commercial take while enhancing the price dividend for fishermen through quality and marketing". His launch of the wild salmon quality guide on Friday 13th in Carna Co Galway indicates that he is serious about this strategy despite the very low stocks. The Minister wants to achieve good prices for netsmen but wants to reduce the commercial catch by introducing restrictions which will limit the numbers of fish caught. Even the netting lobby have acknowledged that they must change as it is no longer commercially viable but they look to MInister Fahey for a deal to be struck. Investing in such marketing initiatives such as the Friday the 13th brochure is a wasteful exercise as in the words of Joey Murrin "with no fish left, the netsmen are going out of business anyway". FISSTA call on Minister Fahey to reconsider this policy of indecision now and declare a national buyout of all licences under the North Atlantic Salmon Fund model which has proven successfull in every other country it has been implemented. Ireland will receive ample return for this investment thorugh angling tourism and the achievement that they have played their part in saving this wonderful king of all fish.

Ireland is one of the only countries where the wild atlantic salmon is not considered an endangered species and while it is one of the most fascinating aspects of nature along with it being a wonderful seafood our Government continues to allow a policy of slaughter by monofilament nets while other countries in the North Atlantic plead conservation with our Minister.

CATCHMENT MANAGEMENT

The Chairman of FISSTA and members of the Executive including Kerry Federation members DJ O Riordan and Tom O Reilly met the Ministe Frank Fahey TD in Galway on thursday night to protest strongly at the forcing through of Catchment Management at the expense of anglers traditional rights. Eviction notices have already been issued to Kerry clubs to vacate their fisheries by the 1st January 2002 to enable a Catchment Management Company take full control of waters that have been the traditionally fished by local anglers for generations. FISSTA are determined to recover the waters of four clubs in Donegal in 1996 to 1998, clubs in Mayo, and two about to be lost in Kerry.