The National Salmon Commission (NSC), a Government-appointed body, has voted by the narrowest of margins to recommend the end of salmon driftnet fishing from the end of the year.
The majority findings of the commission, chaired by former Irish Fishermen's Organisation leader Joey Murrin, has provoked anger from driftnet fishermen.
Alhough the Government is not formally bound to accept the recommendations, it is expected that it will implement them. Under the plan, presented to Minister of State for the Marine John Browne yesterday, "the indiscriminate exploitation of mixed salmon stocks" will finish at the end of the 2006 season.
The Government will have to introduce a compensation scheme in 2007, although several weeks of negotiations between the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources and the commercial fishermen lie ahead.
For the 2006 season, the driftnet fishermen will have 91,000 tonnes of the 106,000-tonne total catch recommended by the commission, with the rest going to rod-and-line anglers in the State's rivers and lakes.
Ireland is the last country in western Europe to sanction open-sea driftnetting, despite long-standing charges by conservationists that the practice has decimated salmon stocks.
Five years ago the total quota was set at 219,000 tonnes. The fishing season has been dramatically cut in the same period from four months to just 32 days a year.
In a three-page letter to Minister for the Marine Noel Dempsey and Mr Browne, Mr Murrin said "protracted negotiations" had occurred during Monday's meeting.
"The advice of the NSC is based on a majority decision and the recommendations which follow arise from a vote of nine in favour, eight against and abstentions," he wrote.
Anglers should be "strongly encouraged" to release salmon, while a limit of 15 fish per angler for 2006 should be introduced, although anglers should be entitled to one fish per day in September, subject to local conditions.
In a minority report, commercial fishing representatives sitting on the NSC said they could not agree to an end of driftnetting "without having before us a comprehensive package".
The commercial ban may increase the price of smoked wild Irish salmon since it will no longer be available in commercial quantities.
