What will happen when the salmon nets are bought out?

I think it is very likely that this will happen very soon but when it does there may well be a number of implications. To begin with its likely there will be a sharp rise in the price of wild salmon as supply is greatly reduced, this will result in an upsurge in poaching of salmon in freshwater. Bear in mind that the review of the fishery boards appears to be directing the policing role into the hands of the local communities.Also, the pressure previously directed at the salmon will be transferred to whitefish as fishermen re-rig nets to fish bottom species - which begs me to ask the question how will this affect us sea anglers (whitefish such as pollock & cod being our 'game' fish)? Maybe the buying out of the nets isn't the holy grail some people paint it to be........

Pete

Its down to policing...

If they buy out the nets it should not be just for salmon fishing, it should be for all fishing. This is what is so worrying about the three year period and review - it allows people have a reason to hang onto the kit.

"Ah jaysus garda, how can I be responsible for what swims into de net - sure I wasn't after de salmon at all, damn nuisance dey are now, it was de bass sorry pollack I was after, honest like, sure arent dey as good as gold, sorry cod like?!"

I tend to disagree with Pete on what the drift netters will do with the extra 6 weeks in the summer if they're not drifting.

Most of these guys are in smallish boats, 20 ft and up, usually wooden hull/outboard. They're not really suitable for gill netting. At least the ones in the north west.

There are a few half deckers at it, but again, these are not really up to much for gill netting whitefish.

I imagine any that fish pots anyway will be doing just that. You don't often see small boats landing boxes of pollock.

Wrasse are used only as pot bait, by the few who still fish trammel nets for bait - and most of the pot fishermen prefer to use mackerel or other oily fish.

It's not a prime time of the year for whitefish really.

My personal view is that it'll make little difference what these guys do if drifting is stopped - they don't have a lot of options as I see it.

I'm not so sure Sandman. Good number of punts were fishing tangle nets on the good pollock ground around Rathlin last summer, boxes of pollock were making up €80 so they were more than happy to do it once the salmon season closed. As for pot bait, i fished pots commercially for 4 years and we regarded mackerel as a last resort as it resulted in too many congers. Lobsters and congers tend to make poor neighbouts in the confines of a pot. Whitefish was what we looked for or the congers themselves, for brown crabs a large piece of conger was excellent - which makes me wonder what kind of impact potting is having on inshore conger stocks.

Show me a tangle or trammel net that catches wrasse and doesn't catch pollock, irregardeless of that I enjoy wrasse fishing and would be agrieved to see them coming under increased commercial pressure.

With salmon making up to €17 a kilo last summer god knows how much it will be selling for when the nets go. Say €20 a kilo (being conservative), which would make an average fish of 3 kilos worth approximately €60. Pulling a river with a net you could catch maybe 10 fish (up to 50 got in night in local river last year) in a couple of pools which would make you €600 better off for a couple of hours work in the evening. Based on the figure of 50 fish....work it our for yourself. There are going to be implications once those nets go both for our sea fish and the salmon & trout in the rivers.

Pete

Pete

Hi Pete,

As regards the conger, I'm sure if you've potted commercially you use anything you can for bait, conger included. The larger crabbers use frozen scad, herring or mackerel. Maybe it's all they can get frozen and in bulk.

As regards conger, I don't know what you'd 'use' them for apart for bait, as I've never found a satisfactory way of cooking them, but it appears they are suffering as a result of a directed fishery. For all I know, they go for pet food.

http://www.sea-angling-ireland.org/bull ... php?t=4492

Up our way, I think a lot of folk stopped netting for bait as the seals were using the nets as their personal buffet - it became more effort than it was worth. I'd say the same reason would curtail any attempt at punts and half deckers making a go of fishing pollock with gill nets. Mostly it's oily fish they use for pot bait - maybe because it's easy to get.

As regards poaching salmon and trout, that's always going to be both a policing issue and something that's going to have to be looked at in terms of savage mandatory sanctions on anyone caught. I'm talking loss of any vehicles or nets etc uesed in the commision of poaching, if you store poched fish on your property - you lose it (although there's issues with that legally). Mandatory jail time. Criminal assetts bureau involved....

We would really want the word to go out that salmon rivers were going to be policed big time and that penalties were harsh enough to make all but the most desperate or stuid try it.

If you're going to ban netting for salmon, you've got to make sure it's done right.

Please feel free to dob in any poachers you find at it.

I think it is very likely that this will happen very soon but when it does there may well be a number of implications. To begin with its likely there will be a sharp rise in the price of wild salmon as supply is greatly reduced, this will result in an upsurge in poaching of salmon in freshwater. Bear in mind that the review of the fishery boards appears to be directing the policing role into the hands of the local communities.Also, the pressure previously directed at the salmon will be transferred to whitefish as fishermen re-rig nets to fish bottom species - which begs me to ask the question how will this affect us sea anglers (whitefish such as pollock & cod being our 'game' fish)? Maybe the buying out of the nets isn't the holy grail some people paint it to be........

Pete

hi pete
there will be a few extra salmon in the sea/rivers
that sea anglers cant catch? :(
there would be abig increse in bass poaching/netting
wonder what % WILL turn to the bass out of several thousand x salmon poachers/netters ?
say 5%/10% thats a few hundret
that catch x amount of bass
= a lot less bass
and other sea fish
art/

Doubtless the poachers will carry on as they are, if not harder.

However, poaching has always been a problem, compounded by the lack of suitable legislation and worse still the lack of enforcement of what legislation we have.

With suitable policing, poaching can be tackled. But it's not going to happen unless us, the anglers, report it at every turn and campaign to get the legislation and enforcement improved.

The fish don't have a vote and can't lobby the politicians. I'd think the solution would be obvious....