A national salmon management body is to be established by the Minister for the Marine and Natural Resources, Dr Woods, with the twin aims of independence and representation.
The twin - if conflicting - aims should meet a key recommendation of the task force on salmon management, according to the Minister. The commission will "guide and monitor the national salmon management strategy and oversee its essential evolution as circumstances change and develop," Dr Woods said yesterday.
The Minister said that various interests, including commercial netsmen, anglers and fishery owners, would contribute to the commission's formation, and it would draw on the expert advice of a standing scientific committee.
Referring to declining stocks, the Minister said he was convinced the current approach to salmon management was the best way forward.
He wished to replace "the traditional attitude of poacher and gamekeeper with a new culture of co-operation and catchment management".
The task force was initiated by the previous government, and recommended a lifting of the monofilament net ban, among other measures. However, the momentum was let slip during the change in administration, and the Irish Fishermen's Organisation recently warned that much goodwill among the various interests was in danger of being lost.
The IFO accused the Minister of not giving the initiative his full support, and said the Marine Institute had failed to consult commercial fishing interests when drawing up measures to implement certain task-force recommendations.
Chaired by Prof Noel Wilkins of NUI Galway, the task force represented the first serious attempt to tackle a controversial issue in more than a decade and to meet the interests of both commercial salmon fishermen and anglers.
It recommended changes in inshore limits and season length, but also acknowledged the rights of coastal communities involved in seasonal fishing. Its main thrust was that a ban on drift-nets for salmon would be unworkable.
The report recommended a quota and tagging system, and this was undertaken by a technical implementation group established by the Marine Institute.
The IFO believes a tagging system should be introduced for two years before any quota is set on salmon. This would enable accurate catch data to be analysed. Serious consideration should also be given to control of predators - principally seals - which, it claims, are "20 times" more active than the drift-net fleet.
It says the untold long-term damage caused by repetitive pollution incidents must be tackled immediately so that rivers are fit for the fish to return to.
On representation, the IFO says commercial fishermen still have little or no voice on regional fisheries boards and none at all on the Central Fisheries Board. This is in spite of the recommendations of the task force, and of the Report to the Select Oireachtas Committee on Enterprise and Economic Strategy.
