Does reopening of the Castlemaine fishery breach Ireland’s salmon management rules?

Martin O’Farrell

The Minister of State at the Department of Communications, Energy & Natural Resources in 2010 allowed a pilot fishery to take in place inside Castlemaine Harbour and requested advice from Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI) on:

‘How a commercial salmon fishery could be operated on salmon stocks in the Castlemaine Harbour Special Area of Conservation in a sustainable manner, maximizing the opportunities for commercial fishing while ensuring that stocks are not over-exploited.’

Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI) sought advice from the Standing Scientific Committee (of the former National Salmon Commission).

Summary of advice from the Standing Scientific Committee

the fisheries should take place only on single stocks that are meeting their Conservation Limits
fishing inside the rivers Laune, Maine and Caragh is advised as this will reduce the possibility of intercepting fish from other rivers
if it is not possible to operate the fisheries within these rivers, then the fisheries should take place as close as possible to the rivers (i.e. the river mouths) or the estuaries of the individual rivers in order to reduce the possibility of intercepting fish from neighbouring and other rivers

Based on this advice, IFI recommended to the Irish Government that:

a commercial fishery in Castlemaine Harbour should be permitted in 2011
commercial salmon fishing should take place inside the Rivers Laune, Maine and Caragh
the public draft net fishery should only take place in boxes A, B, C, D and E, as identified in the pilot study
the management advice in relation to the methodology of prosecuting the fishery is that multi-strand monofilament draft nets are used, and are deployed in the same manner as heretofore.
management further recommends that the TAC for Castlemaine Harbour should not exceed 1,162 fish, and the remaining 3,591 fish are to be divided between the private commercial fisheries in the Rivers Laune and Caragh. Should the 1,162 quota not be fully caught by the Castlemaine fishermen then net figure be reallocated to the private commercial fisheries.

Commercial salmon fisheries inside the defined mouths of the Caragh, Laune and Maine rivers are private several fisheries and also constitute very valuable private properties. O

utside the defined mouths of each river is a zone (extending to half a mile from each bank and arcing seaward) from which any public fishery is prohibited.

Contradiction
IFI are very positive about reopening a mixed stock commercial salmon fishery which is at odds with the advice from the SSC. Of course the fishery can be carried out inside the defined mouths of the Caragh, Laune and Maine but only by the private several fishery owners.

This decision to re-open a mixed stock commercial salmon fishery goes against everything that has gone on in Irish salmon management for the past five years.

The owners of the Caragh estuary several fishery did not operate the fishery in 2010 and do not plan to do so in 2011 on fishery conservation grounds.

To date, IFI has spent significant resources monitoring the 2010 pilot fishery in Castlemaine Harbour and on the genetic analysis of the 2010 catch of 783 salmon which proved the pilot fishery to be a mixed stock fishery exploiting fish from the Laune (64.4%), Maine (18.2%), Caragh (5.6%); other local rivers within Castlemaine Harbour – Behy / Emlagh / Owenascaul (5.3%); nearby rivers outside Castlemaine Harbour -Inny / Ferta / Tralee Lee (2%) and more distant rivers in the Waterford / Lismore fishery districts (3.8%) and Donegal (0.4%).

In 2010 the Castlemaine Harbour Pilot Fishery was an indiscriminate mixed stock fishery, just like the former Irish salmon drift-net fishery.

In many ways, former Junior Minister Conor Lenihan’s request for advice from IFI had the ring of a Rugby Union match referee who asks the Television Match Official:

‘Is there any reason why I cannot award a try? There is only one answer: ‘No Minister, there is no reason why you cannot allow the fishery to operate.’

I cannot understand why IFI would want to break the rules of national salmon management to accommodate the reopening of the Castlemaine Harbour public salmon draft-net fishery.

Am I missing something?

The Department responds to Inshore Ireland

The Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Pat Rabbitte TD has announced a statutory public consultation process, the purpose of which is to allow affected stakeholders an opportunity to object to the proposals for opening the wild salmon commercial fishery as recommended by Inland Fisheries Ireland.

The Minister advertised his intention to open a licensed draft net fishery in Castlemaine Harbour, Co Kerry from c. 21 June 2011, depending on the outcome of a statutory public consultation process that commenced on 19 May 2011.

On foot of the results of a detailed pilot study undertaken last year, it has been possible to consider the reopening of a public commercial fishery on a mixed stock without risk to the contributing salmon stocks from individual rivers, each of which is meeting their conservation limits. The additional information leading to the recommendation was gathered from a comprehensive monitoring programme covering all parts of the season, all areas of the Castlemaine harbour and genetic sampling of fish prior to and during 2010.

The materials published, on which the decision to open a fishery is based, fully describe the conduct of the pilot fishery in 2010 and the various analyses (including genetic analysis of fish) undertaken.

It would not be appropriate for the Minister to comment further in advance of receiving all of the expected submissions under the process.

IFI responds to Inshore Ireland
Mr Martin O’ Farrell asserts that the decision to reopen the private draft net fishery in Castlemaine Harbour “goes against everything that has gone on in Irish salmon management for the past five years”. IFI strongly disagrees with this statement and suggests that Mr O’ Farrell is taking a somewhat selective view of the factual situation.

Minister Conor Lenihan, then Minister of State in DCENR instructed the Central and Regional Fisheries Boards, now IFI, to examine how a commercial salmon fishery could be operated [see full text at intro of main article]

On foot of this request the pilot project was commenced; this project included both fisheries and genetic stock identification elements. The results were assessed by the Standing Scientific Committee, and the results are available on the IFI website www.fisheriesireland.ie
The SSC made three recommendations:

Mr O’Farrell quotes excerpts from the genetic stock identification report and suggests that the Castlemaine Harbour is an indiscriminate mixed stock fishery; however the report actually qualifies this (as emphasized below):

Approximately 2% of the fishery appeared to be originating from rivers close to but outside Castlemaine Harbour…..… However, analysis of simulated fishery samples suggests that these apparent contributions from rivers outside Castlemaine Harbour may result from experimental error associated with mis-assignment from correct population of origin.

The reasons the Castlemaine Harbour fishery was closed in the first instance are: that the rivers Emlagh and Behy were adjudicated to be discrete salmon populations in their own right and were below their conservation limit, and the River Maine was assessed as being below its conservation limit.
Based on information accumulated in the interim, the SSC identified a harvestable surplus for the River Maine for 2010, and following the genetic stock identification project, it was concluded that the stock in the Rivers Emlagh and Behy are transient:

Analysis of temporal stability in the samples taken from the Behy and Emlagh indicates that these rivers may have low genetic integrity over generations.
Consequently, the management advice reflected this situation and also recommended: ‘that further work on the status of salmon populations in the two rivers be conducted.’
Thus, the contributing stocks to the Castlemaine Harbour fishery: Laune, Maine and Caragh are each above their conservation limits.

Mr O’Farrell likens the situation to the awarding of a try in a rugby match where the refereed asks for a reason not to award the try. In this regard I would direct him to the original instruction from Minister Lenihan.

The IFI contends that a public fishery would be viable once it is operated in accordance with IFI management advice.

Finally, Mr O’ Farrell indicates that the owners of the River Caragh estuary several fishery did not operate the fishery in 2010 and do not plan to do so again in 2011 on fishery conservation grounds.

While this is welcomed, and IFI supports any and all conservation initiatives, it should be pointed out that Mr O’ Farrell would appear to have ownership interests in the River Caragh estuary several fishery and also in the private recreational fishery on the River Caragh.

As the several fishery owner it is for Mr O’Farrell to decide how the stock is harvested between the recreational and commercial fishery.