Minister of State for the Marine Pat the Cope Gallagher has accused the Green Party of ignoring facts on wild salmon management.
In a related development, several upmarket guesthouses in the south have decided to drop salmon from restaurant menus as a form of protest over the State's management policy.
The Green Party's deputy leader Mary White and marine spokesman Eamon Ryan plan to unveil a banner over the river Liffey in Dublin tomorrow as part of a campaign to urge the Minister of State to "heed scientific advice" on total wild salmon catches for this year.
The party is urging Mr Gallagher to accept a catch of 97,000 fish recommended by scientists, rather than 139,900 proposed by the National Salmon Commission. "Allowing an extra 42,000 fish to be caught could well push salmon into extinction on many Irish rivers," the party has said.
However, the Minister of State said the Green Party is "ignoring facts and human considerations", and failing to acknowledge the compromises made by all sectors involved in salmon catching since quotas were introduced for the fish.
"Total catches have gone from 220,000 to this recommended 139,000 fish, and commercial netsmen have moved from a 12-mile to a 6-mile limit, with a four-day week and tags and quotas," Mr Gallagher said. "The historical right to licences has been reduced," he said.
He said he was committed to conservation and sustainable management, but "the impact of seals, global warming and bycatches" should also be taken into account, he emphasised.
Mr Gallagher also said that the Green Party's reference to an "extra 42,000 fish" was incorrect. The outgoing advisory group was forced to agree on a compromise total allowable catch in late February, due to a wide divergence in opinion between scientists and fishery boards and managers, he said. The commercial sector would still be accepting reduced catches of up to 22,000 fish, he added.
The total allowable catch recommended by the Minister's advisory group was agreed by vote after a significant divergence in opinion between scientists and fishery managers, according to Joey Murrin, its outgoing chairman.
The group's standing scientific committee had advised a total allowable catch of 124,500 fish. However, fishery board managers had pressed for 146,000 fish - based on the total number of fish caught last year, at 145,000, from a total allowable catch of 162,000 fish.
The compromise figure of 139,000 fish comes with a commitment to phase in further reductions over the next two years, and to accept the scientific committee's proposals by 2007 at the latest, Mr Murrin said. These proposals would be based on the most up-to-date scientific advice and risk assessment, he said.
The Minister of State has not signed off on the figure, and is accepting submissions on it until April 13th.
In Co Cork, both Longueville House in Mallow, and Ballyvolane House, Castlelyons, have dropped salmon from their menus in support of a campaign run by game-angling federations, private fishery owners and tourism interests to have drift netting for salmon banned off the Irish coast.
The Stop Salmon Drift Nets Now campaign was founded in Athlone, Co Westmeath, last year. Doug Lock, a fly-fishery instructor and guide based near Fermoy, Co Cork, has been unofficial co-ordinator of the guesthouse initiative and says the Government must take action over drift nets if angling tourism is to have any future.
The Minister of State reiterated at the weekend that there would be no State buy-out of fishing licences.
