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Not only is the Bush government taking a backward step for salmon conservation but the Irish goverenment is showing the world take It has no idea whats going on
Ireland's latest efforts to restore its wild salmon stocks were bitterly
criticised today (Friday) by Orri Vigfusson, Chairman of the North
Atlantic Salmon Fund (NASF), the international conservation coalition which has led the rescue efforts adopted by all other countries.
Mr Vigfusson declared that new salmon quotas ordered by Ireland's National Salmon Commission were "a complete waste of time ." He added: "Salmon stocks are at an all-time low yet the Irish Government intends to continue its selfish persecution of a threatened species. "In setting these ridiculous quotas the Commission has totally ignored the
plight of Europe's threatened stocks. It has also rejected the advice of Ireland's own fishery scientists who said their country's commercial exploitation of wild salmon should be cut by 40%."
As well as taking most of the salmon heading for their own rivers, over
700 Irish drift nets intercept the fish returning from their northern oceanic
feeding grounds to the rivers of Wales, Spain, France, Germany, South and South West of England. The Irish Government estimates their
average annual catch at almost 240,000 though Irish anglers claim the true figure is much higher.
Quotas will be introduced in only nine of the 17 districts, Three districts
will have their average catch cut by 15%, three by 10% and two by 5%. But the eight districts that catch the most fish will be allowed to continue
killing as many salmon as they can.
Mr Vigfusson said: "These ineffectual quotas will put conservation back
five years. A vast amount of the Irish taxpayer?s money has been spent
on plans that would allow Ireland to adapt to a new harvesting regime. It was supposed to be based upon conservation and the restoration of the country's lucrative angling tourism which, thanks to the shortage of salmon in many Irish rivers, has slumped very badly. We must start again from the position promised by Minister Gilmore in 1996/97.
"For the last two years NASF has been working with both the netsmen and the present fisheries minister, Frank Fahey, to produce a sensible conservation programme that would compensate the commercial
fishermen for stopping fishing. It has the support of the great majority of the netsmen and of Ireland's anglers.
"All that work has been thrown aside and this is a serious setback for
salmon stocks on both sides of the Atlantic. There is now great danger
that the commercial fishermen of Greenland and the Faroes, who stopped fishing on the salmon's feeding grounds in the hope of restoring stocks, will say there is no point in continuing to save salmon only to have them killed by the Irish. If they resume salmon fishing it would be the end of the species."
Mr Vigfusson said that one of the saddest aspects of the Dublin government's failure to face up to the need for genuine conservation measures was the fact that negotiations were going well with the Northern Ireland authorities for a complete buyout of commercial salmon netting north of the border and should be completed by June.
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http://www.salmonanglers.com/nasf.html |
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