SOME 50 rivers are to be open for wild salmon angling in the new year, but salmon stocks are continuing to fall according to Minister of State for Natural Resources Conor Lenihan.
Indicators for survival of salmon at sea are at their lowest since records began, Mr Lenihan has said.
And with uncertainty continuing over stock levels, leading scientific expert Dr Ken Whelan said the effect of the 2007 driftnet ban on wild salmon would not be known until 2010-2011.
New regulations and bylaws approved by Mr Lenihan will permit total allowable catches in 50 rivers – two more than in the past year.
“Four rivers which were closed in 2009 are open for harvest in 2010 – the Maine, Croanshagh, Ferta (Kerry district) and Culfin (Ballinakill, Co Galway, district),” Mr Lenihan said.
He said two rivers which were open in 2009 – the Glengariff (Cork district) and Blackwater (Kerry district) – would close in 2010.
“Some 11 rivers are open only to angling on a ‘catch and release’ basis because of the status of stocks,” he said. However, 80 rivers remain closed to angling, as salmon stocks were not meeting conservation limits.
“The analysis shows that with the exception of a number of rivers, virtually all indices continued to fall in 2009,” Mr Lenihan said.
“This reflects the persistent downward trend in marine survival which is pervasive throughout all the North Atlantic stock complexes, as reported by the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea.”
Dr Whelan of the Marine Institute said because of the salmon’s four-year cycle it would take some time before the impact of the driftnet ban, initiated in 2007, was reflected. He said the first run of smolts from an increased return in 2007 would be evident next spring (2010), while the first run of grilse would be evident in 2011.
He said the exceptions were the east and southeast coast, which might be due to additional problems with habitat and pollution.
Over the last two years, the biggest challenge affecting stock was one of marine survival, and it appears that there are certain ocean zones where the food is not abundant enough for young fish, Dr Whelan noted.
Dr Whelan is currently analysing the results of the EU-funded SALSEA-Merge project, a partnership of geneticists, oceanographers and ocean modellers involved in mapping the major European salmon stocks.
The researchers used genetic “fingerprinting” for the mapping, undertaken on board Irish, Norwegian and Faroese research vessels over the past two years. It is expected that the results and recommendations will be discussed at a wild salmon summit in 2011.