Drift net fishing - Move to save salmon stocks long overdue

The recommendation from the Oireachtas joint committee on Marine and Natural Resources, that the country’s 1,500 drift net fishermen be encouraged to abandon fishing permanently, is a practical, if overdue, measure aimed at conserving salmon stocks.

It is intended to achieve this through a voluntary compensation scheme, in tandem with the long-term objective to put single stock management system of salmon fishing in the sea, river and streams under the aegis of a central control. The Joint Oireachtas Committee has issued these recommendations after a detailed study of the crisis facing salmon stocks in Ireland, which has been a major concern for too long.

It is a concern of the national economy that drift net salmon be abandoned, and if that can be achieved through an equitable compensation scheme, it will be in the interest of all concerned. While no potential cost has been referred to, the compensation has to be adequate for the loss of earnings involved, but should not equate with a get-rich-quick scheme.

Across northern Europe, drift net fishing has been implicated in the massive deterioration in salmon stocks, with the result that the practice is currently banned in most other countries along Europe’s Atlantic coast. Here, it has prompted protests all over the country by anglers who want an end to the practice and who have been frustrated by Government policy in allowing it to continue.

For too long it has been an issue which has been politicised, and the implications of this new drive will have to appreciated for the inevitable good of the country as a whole, rather than narrow vested interests.

The angling industry has been practically near to collapse, something which this country cannot afford because of the contribution it should be making to the economy.