Fishing Industry

Thursday, 4 December 2025

Questions (179)

Mairéad Farrell

Question:

179. Deputy Mairéad Farrell asked the Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment the reason Lough Corrib SAC is moving from having a harvestable quota of wild salmon in 2025 to full 'catch and release' angling for the 2026 season, considering his comments on 9 October 2025 stating that the Corrib catchment has a sizeable stock of wild salmon to meet its natural reproductive capacity and does not require supplementation with Cong hatchery stock; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [68972/25]

View answer

Written answers

Minister of State at the Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment (Deputy Timmy Dooley)

There is no requirement under the proposed Wild Salmon and Sea Trout Tagging Scheme Regulations for anglers or commercial fishers to tag or report the capture of Pink salmon (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha). Accordingly, the removal of such fish without tagging would not give rise to an offence under those Regulations.

The policy of the Department, and the position of Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI), is that pink salmon are an invasive alien species. Anglers, fishers and members of the public are therefore requested to retain any pink salmon encountered and present these fish to IFI for scientific analysis.