DRIFT NETTING of salmon is to be restricted next year, but the ban on monofilament nets is to be lifted, the Minister of State for the Marine, Mr Eamon Gilmore, has said.
The Minister, who has decided to implement the key recommendations of the Government's Salmon Task Force report, said that drift netting would be curtailed to June and July only. The activity would be legal for licenceholders for four, rather than five, days a week.
In a statement issued after a meeting yesterday with the Irish Fishermen's Organisation, the Minister also confirmed that he intended to cap the number of licences at the 1995 level of 773 instead of the current maximum number of 847.
The task force report's other recommendations, which he intends to implement, include restricting the salmon fishing area from 12 miles to a six mile limit, and legalising daytime fishing only from 4 a.m. to 9 p.m., instead of 24 hour.
The IFO had asked the Minister to relax some of the measures suggested in the report, but he rejected this and said that his priority was conservation of wild salmon stocks, which were a unique resource.
The tagging and quota systems' recommended in the task force report would require new primary legislation, he said, and it would not be possible to have this in place before 1998.
The Minister emphasised that he wanted to proceed with the conservation measures from next year.
Earlier this week, salmon draftnetters had condemned the Minister's initiative and had called for an outright ban on drift nets. The Irish Estuaries' Traditional Salmon Net Fishermen's Association said that a more drastic approach was required to save the salmon. Its members supported motions of no confidence in the task force report which were passed by the Southern and Shannon Regional Fisheries Boards.
