Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 16 December 2025
214. Deputy Mairéad Farrell asked the Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment to provide further details on the updated scientific advice, which he received in November 2025, showing that Lough Corrib SAC salmon stocks will not have a sustainable surplus available for harvest in 2026; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [72488/25]
View answerThe scientific catch advice on salmon fisheries for the 2026 season is provided by the Technical Expert Group on Salmon (TEGOS). The TEGOS Report is available on Inland Fisheries Ireland’s website at www.fisheriesireland.ie/publications.
Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI) have advised that the stock assessment and associated catch advice given for the Corrib is primarily based on the fish counter at the Galway Weir and uses the most recent five-year period of data (i.e. 2021-2025). The counter is a partial counter so the raw count data is doubled. Ranched salmon passing through the counter are removed from the estimates of the run as the stock assessment and catch advice is based on wild salmon. Harvest of wild salmon below the counter are added to the counter run to get a full estimate of returns of salmon to the river. Essentially the average of the five years of the stock estimate is used to forecast the number of adults that will return to the river for the upcoming season (i.e. 2026).
Using five-years of data ensures that a single very good or bad year doesn’t over or under-estimate the forecast. It also generally reflects the life cycle period of salmon. The forecasted number of adults that return is then compared to the conservation limit for the river (i.e. minimum number of returning fish a river requires to ensure its stock remains healthy) and any returns above this are considered surplus to the health of the stock and thus available for sustainable harvest.
A level of certainty is required that the conservation limit will be achieved at the surplus quota advised to account for the risks in the catch advice. The standard basis for the stock assessment and associated catch advice provides for a high probability (i.e. 75% chance) that the conservation limit will be met by the forecasted returns at the quota set. IFI have decided that more certainty is warranted (i.e. 85% probability that the conservation limit will be met at the quota advised) over the base scientific advice. This reduces the quota that would be otherwise advised.
At the 85% probability level, no quota for sustainable harvest is available and as such catch and release-only fishing is advised for this stock in 2026. This better aligns with North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organisation advice that stock exploitation should not solely be managed to the standard conservation limits themselves but should also have management targets above this to build in an extra level of precaution. These precautions are deemed necessary in the context of the uncertain future trajectory of our salmon stocks in general which have continued to progressively decline in Ireland in recent decades. Such an approach is also considered necessary to uphold the long-term term viability of the stock in the context of the many threats and pressures this species continues to be subject to.
