National Salmon Commission chairman Joey Murrin has questioned this week's decision by the Minister for Natural Resources to reopen 27 rivers for draftnetting and salmon angling.
Draftnetting is a traditional fishing method used in estuaries.
Mr Murrin expressed "disappointment" that the National Salmon Commission(NSC) - Éamon Ryan's own advisory body - was not consulted on a number of issues relating to wild salmon management, control and protection.
It was "abundantly clear" that a commercial salmon fishery had been transferred from the sea to rivers, with no real attempt to eradicate illegal catching, and this was a "national disgrace", Mr Murrin said yesterday.
Mr Murrin expressed surprise to The Irish Times at Mr Ryan's announcement this week that he was reopening 27 rivers on the basis of a "very noticeable improvement" in stocks. However, the river Liffey remains closed to salmon fishing.
Since the driftnet ban was introduced under pressure from the EU last year, there had been a 90 per cent reduction in fish caught commercially, Mr Ryan noted. However, he did not attribute any improvement in salmon runs up rivers solely to a ban on netting offshore.
The National Salmon Commission was not consulted, even though a majority of members had advised that certain rivers among the list of 27 with low conservation limits should not be reopened for angling and netting.
Mr Murrin said this advice had been transmitted to the Department of Natural Resources last month. He also said that a request by him to meet the Minister, first transmitted last September, had still not been taken up. Mr Ryan's announcement did not reflect fairly the difficulties that commercial fishermen had experienced in 2007, Mr Murrin added.
He said that a majority view on the salmon commission also believed that fines for fishery offences should be increased substantially to deter illegal catching of wild salmon.
Mr Murrin added he had written to three ministers since 2005, proposing that the State's 75 sea fishery protection officers employed by a new State agency should also be employed on monitoring wild salmon. Instead, an additional €4 million was being allocated to fisheries boards, with no details on how this was to be spent, and this could "be another waste" of taxpayers' money.
"Unless the Minister takes immediate action on a proper management policy for inland fisheries, the benefits of conservation measures such as the driftnet ban are going to be lost to the nation, to the genuine angler and to any commercial fishermen left working on the fishery." He said "when one has been presiding over a decision which effectively stops people earning a living [through banning driftnets] on conservation grounds, and that resource continues to be exploited illegally, it is hard not to react."
A spokeswoman for Mr Ryan insisted that the NSC advice was received and formed part of the decision. A 30-day public consultation period had also been allowed for beforehand, she said. Mr Ryan would be meeting the NSC chairman and had not had an opportunity to do to date due to diary constraints.
