Post by storlaks on Feb 27, 2007 7:55:44 GMT
This doesn't make good reading. 
Press Release FROM THE NASF COALITION – February 14, 2007
NASF and its conservation partners urge the Irish authorities to think again about new netting regulations that could allow drift netting and other types of mixed stock fisheries to continue under another name.
It has taken the global Atlantic salmon fraternity the best part of 20 years to get the Irish Government to accept its international obligations to end its interceptory mixed-stock salmon fisheries. Last November the Irish Government conceded that the drift nets violated the ICES scientific recommendations, the EU Habitat Directive and the UN Law of the Sea Treaty and announced that it was ending all Irish driftnet fisheries for salmon. The announcement was hailed with approval by a wide range of interests including NASF and the government was rewarded with very positive publicity in Ireland and its neighbouring countries. Unfortunately, we now have serious doubts about the government's real intentions.
The Coalition has been advised that, either by accident or design, the new regulations announced by the Irish government will backtrack on its commitments to end the damage drift netting has done to stocks. As matters stand, regional fisheries managers will be permitted to redefine driftnets as draft nets and to extend the areas of estuaries and bays in which commercial salmon fishing is permitted.
This will have the effect of preventing far too many salmon from reaching their home rivers in Ireland and elsewhere in Europe. We find it particularly disturbing that the most likely places where the new netting opportunities may be offered are the areas where most of the mixed stocks of salmon caught by drift netting were formerly taken -- the Kerry region, the Donegal coast and the Foyle area through the cross-border Loughs Agency. The Lough Foyle region has a long history of allowing mixed-stock salmon fishing to reduce spawning numbers to minimal conservation limits.
Anglers in Ireland and elsewhere believe that if the Irish government’s claim to be ending drift netting is by-passed in this way there will be an increasing assault on salmon stocks as the numbers of traditional estuarial nets are swollen by an unwelcome influx of drift netters operating as estuarial nets.
As they stand, these new regulations suggest that the Irish Marine department remains prepared to permit commercial fishermen to fish the salmon resource to extinction. If this is allowed to take place a return to salmon abundance will never be achieved. We call on the Irish Government to accept that the Atlantic salmon is a common international resource and withdraw any regulations that could dilute the beneficial effects that an end to Irish mixed stock fisheries should produce.
Orri Vigfússon, Chairman, North Atlantic Salmon Fund, Reykjavík - Delfín Puente Rodríguez , Presidente , La Real Asociación Asturiana de Pesca Fluvial, Spain. - Frank Curran, Chairman, Foyle Association of Salmon and Trout Anglers - Marc-Adrien Marcellier, Chairman NASF (France) - Jim Haughey, Chairman NASF (Northern Ireland) & Ulster Angling Federation, Northern Ireland Humphrey Wood, Chairman South West Rivers Association, England - John Carroll, Chairman Federation of Irish Salmon and Sea Trout Anglers - Kurt Pilchowski, Chairman, Lachs- und Meerforellensoziet, Germany - Gordon Sim, Angling Director, The Bann System Ltd.
Press Release FROM THE NASF COALITION – February 14, 2007
NASF and its conservation partners urge the Irish authorities to think again about new netting regulations that could allow drift netting and other types of mixed stock fisheries to continue under another name.
It has taken the global Atlantic salmon fraternity the best part of 20 years to get the Irish Government to accept its international obligations to end its interceptory mixed-stock salmon fisheries. Last November the Irish Government conceded that the drift nets violated the ICES scientific recommendations, the EU Habitat Directive and the UN Law of the Sea Treaty and announced that it was ending all Irish driftnet fisheries for salmon. The announcement was hailed with approval by a wide range of interests including NASF and the government was rewarded with very positive publicity in Ireland and its neighbouring countries. Unfortunately, we now have serious doubts about the government's real intentions.
The Coalition has been advised that, either by accident or design, the new regulations announced by the Irish government will backtrack on its commitments to end the damage drift netting has done to stocks. As matters stand, regional fisheries managers will be permitted to redefine driftnets as draft nets and to extend the areas of estuaries and bays in which commercial salmon fishing is permitted.
This will have the effect of preventing far too many salmon from reaching their home rivers in Ireland and elsewhere in Europe. We find it particularly disturbing that the most likely places where the new netting opportunities may be offered are the areas where most of the mixed stocks of salmon caught by drift netting were formerly taken -- the Kerry region, the Donegal coast and the Foyle area through the cross-border Loughs Agency. The Lough Foyle region has a long history of allowing mixed-stock salmon fishing to reduce spawning numbers to minimal conservation limits.
Anglers in Ireland and elsewhere believe that if the Irish government’s claim to be ending drift netting is by-passed in this way there will be an increasing assault on salmon stocks as the numbers of traditional estuarial nets are swollen by an unwelcome influx of drift netters operating as estuarial nets.
As they stand, these new regulations suggest that the Irish Marine department remains prepared to permit commercial fishermen to fish the salmon resource to extinction. If this is allowed to take place a return to salmon abundance will never be achieved. We call on the Irish Government to accept that the Atlantic salmon is a common international resource and withdraw any regulations that could dilute the beneficial effects that an end to Irish mixed stock fisheries should produce.
Orri Vigfússon, Chairman, North Atlantic Salmon Fund, Reykjavík - Delfín Puente Rodríguez , Presidente , La Real Asociación Asturiana de Pesca Fluvial, Spain. - Frank Curran, Chairman, Foyle Association of Salmon and Trout Anglers - Marc-Adrien Marcellier, Chairman NASF (France) - Jim Haughey, Chairman NASF (Northern Ireland) & Ulster Angling Federation, Northern Ireland Humphrey Wood, Chairman South West Rivers Association, England - John Carroll, Chairman Federation of Irish Salmon and Sea Trout Anglers - Kurt Pilchowski, Chairman, Lachs- und Meerforellensoziet, Germany - Gordon Sim, Angling Director, The Bann System Ltd.
