salmon drift nets

[liamdenn]

salmon ban in as of jan! happy days. lets just hope they dont use the nets for the basseys now!!!

[teacher]

salmon ban in as of jan! happy days. lets just hope they dont use the nets for the basseys now!!!

Always the optimist Liam ;)

[Donagh]

No supprisingly enough they actually going to do it according to the rte web site. I was sure there be a fudge.

Donagh

[corbyeire]

great news - just showed that enough of the regional tds didnt matter for this one 8)

[liam78]

i theres a net a ballygally co antrim :evil: saw a jet ski near miss the net :(

[blaker]

887 driftnetters in Ireland. RTE put it right when they said that "the numbers just arent there to affect the government in the elections". If there was 3000 netters nothing would have happened.

[x]

Look at it like this, there are 28,000 salmon anglers.

Also, the EU would have kicked ?30m worth out of us for our latest failure to comply with the Habitats Directive if we didn't ban drifting this time round. One way or the other, the government has prevaricated into the taxpayer shelling out that amount.

The government here ran out of options on this one a long time ago, but had neither the grace or decency to act honourably.

I personally think the compensation package is a farce. As usual, those who removed most salmon will get the lion's share of the payout. Small man gets the shaft again. Nothing new there.....we can spend over ?240m odd on consultants and software (that'll never work, despite being 4 years over time) for the health service, but only 'give' ?30m to end not just drift netting, but all salmon netting. (Do the math here, you are a taxpayer funding this farce: ?240m and there are 4m people in this country - what is the per-capita [and how many of that 4m pay tax?] cost? - scary. We could just have bought a small hospital. Each. )

As for those in a position to exit voluntarily, the financial incentive just isn't there. This is the one area where the government had a chance left to make a pigs ear of it and yes, they did just that.

So, don't fall for the spin that the government 'decided to do the right thing'. They didn't have any other options left.

[cortaz]

887 driftnets = over 500 miles of nets removed from the south and west coasts thats going to make a BIG differnce, and not just to salmon/sea trout when you consider the by-catch of birds, mammals,fish;
its the best thing since they banned gillnetting bass :)
the river anglers played a big part in it, fareplay to them.
now if we could stop the 100 or so bass poachers what a differnce thah could make. :!: :!:

[x]

We should be calling for the same sort of carcass-tagging for bass that we have for salmon and sea trout. Remember, a poacher is finished without a market.

And since everyone in the south-east and their dogs seems to know which restaurants are buying poached bass, why the hell has nobody reported this to the CFB or or regional board?

Mind you, at the rate we're going, the day we get 28,000 sea anglers howling for change, will be the day hell finally freezes over - at the rate we're going.

[liam78]

thats true :evil:

[Andy Elliott]

Go after the resturants that are selling the fish , huge fines should do the trick, perhaps even closure for repeat offenders, it is illegal to commercially fish for bass in Ireland, therefore any resturant selling bass ,should be able to produce a receipt to prove where they imported their bass from. Take away the demand for the fish and the poachers market collapses.


Andy Elliott

[Bradan]

I personally think the compensation package is a farce. As usual, those who removed most salmon will get the lion's share of the payout. Small man gets the shaft again. Nothing new there.....we can spend over €240m odd on consultants and software (that'll never work, despite being 4 years over time) for the health service, but only 'give' €30m to end not just drift netting, but all salmon netting. (Do the math here, you are a taxpayer funding this farce: €240m and there are 4m people in this country - what is the per-capita [and how many of that 4m pay tax?] cost? - scary. We could just have bought a small hospital. Each. )

Sorry to disappoint you Sandman, but if you read the report, you'll see the ban only applies to mixed-stock commercial fisheries. Where rivers are above their conservation limit, and a local draftnet fishery only exploits that stock (i.e. in an estuary), there will still be commercial fishing.
Don't be too surprised in a few years too - if stocks recover - when more draftnets are allowed, or draft quotas increase....

Also, don't forget, under this plan, a huge number of rivers will be closed to angling next year - the report calls for closure where rivers do not meet their conservation limit, or where there is insufficient information on stocks to determine if the stock is sustainable.

As there are something like 140 significant salmon rivers in the country, and only 30 or so have fish counters installed, theoretically we could have dozens of rivers closed to all fishing, including anglers.
Don't think the campaigners saw that one coming..... :oops: [/u]

[x]

The ban does only apply to mixed stock (ie at sea) fisheries; those in estuaries will still be permitted.

The measures introduced also allow for a voluntary withdrawl by those fishing the estuaries. But given how little compensation is available, I cannot personally see a rush to take it up. That is a pity, because we now have a situation where we are actively encouraging fishing on what essentially are the spawning grounds. If there is one place you are sure to catch salmon, it's where they enter the mouth of a river.

I know from a management perspective that the mixed stock fishery is uncontrollable in terms of being able to select only salmon which are returning to rivers with a healthy population and that is why drift netting in particular has had to stop.

I often hear the line about lack of fish counters. You would honestly swear that these devices were a massive feat of construction to install and that maintenance on the International Space Station is easier. Bull. It's not rocket science.

The total cost of running Leinster House next year is expected to amount to ?122m. I think if as a country we can afford that, we can afford a few dozen fish counters.

[liamdenn]

I hear ya but the thing is it is not possible to put counters on many rivers. the one I fish in kerry with for example is a spate river (so the salmon only run it when it is in flood), and it bursts its banks often so a fish counter would not give any idea of the fish running it. also if tourism is one of the reasons given for closing the drift netting down what effect will that have if we loose anglers for three years??????

[Eoghan]

Lads we have to do our part too with catch and release. When you think about it, once you have a good pic of the fish, do you really need to keep it..? Ask yourself honestly.


Its easy to get caught up in the excitment of a big bass but how many of us after killing a fish regret it a bit later..? I think most people would.

Just food for thought, no pun intended..!