The Minister for the Marine and Natural Resources, Dr Woods, has signalled that he will honour the previous government's initiative on salmon management by renewing new conservation measures this year.
A relaxation of the ban on monofilament netting will also continue for 1998, the Minister said. However, Dr Woods said he was open to discussion, suggesting that his commitment to the Salmon Management Task Force Report is short-term.
The task force report, completed in 1996 for the then junior marine minister, Mr Eamon Gilmore, recommended reform of the commercial salmon regime to allow for a two-month season. This was to be combined with vigorous enforcement of regulations and a new six-mile limit.
As a concession to drift-netters, the ban on monofilament netting was relaxed, given that the ban was perceived to be unenforceable.
A feasibility study undertaken by the Marine Institute of the task force's other key recommendations, including tagging and quotas, will be published, the Minister said. He was responding to calls made at a demonstration in Dublin on Wednesday by the Federation of Irish Sea Trout and Salmon Anglers (FISSTA).
FISSTA has described the state of stocks as in "dramatic decline", in spite of the fact that recorded catches for 1997 show a far healthier state than predicted. The Salmon Research Agency had forecast a total catch of 120,000 fish for last year. However, figures submitted by the regional fisheries boards recorded a total of 209,214 fish. The Minister is understood to be under severe pressure from angling groups to reopen the salmon debate and impose a complete ban on driftnetting. However, as the task force report pointed out, the rights of coastal communities have to be recognised in any management regime.
Economic factors have already forced many small-boat skippers out of salmon, and driftnetting fleets in Burtonport and Aranmore, Co Donegal, have dwindled to a handful of boats.
Anglers might withdraw their "traditional warm welcome" from angling tourists if the Minister did not introduce conservation measures, FISSTA warned at a protest attended by several hundred members on the banks of the Liffey on New Year's Eve.
FISSTA said it had agreed to the legalisation of monofilament nets for commercial sea drift-netting on the condition that a quota and tagging system be introduced to limit the effect of the invisible nets on wild salmon stocks.
FISSTA also wants a commitment from the Minister that the salmon fishing season will not be extended this year as it was in some areas last autumn. While official figures suggest that the recorded catch of salmon did not decline dramatically this year, FISSTA said the experience of angling club members was that stocks had declined by an average of 30 per cent around the country.
Mr Leo Boyle, of the Irish Estuary Salmon Net Fishing Association, said the catch in his area had gone down from 5,400 in 1996 to 1,083 this year.
"It's the worst season I ever remember on the Boyne. What's going on at sea is blatant piracy," he said. Mr Dan Joy of FISSTA said the salmon run was now one-eighth what it was in the late 1960s. He said the organisation's members intended becoming more political in highlighting their cause.
Asked if the dispute could escalate into "Rod War II", Mr Joy said he would be "very cautious" about making such a threat, "but if we have to take a stand and take extreme measures, so be it".