Just 3 salmon engine licences in use locally

Culture, Arts and Leisure Minister Carol Ní Chuilín - whose department is allowed to licence drift and draft netting of salmon under the Fisheries Act (1966) - advised 6 licences for salmon fishing engines in the DCAL jurisdiction of the coastal waters of Northern Ireland have been issued in 2011.

Catch records over the last five years indicate that four of these licences are actively fished.

Ms Chuilín advised that the Lough’s Agency is responsible for the licensing of salmon fishing engines in the Foyle and Carlingford coastal waters.

She stated: “In 2011 the Department has issued four licences for salmon fishing engines in the DCAL jurisdiction of the coastal waters of counties Antrim and Derry.

“Catch records over the last five years indicate that three of these licences are actively fished. The Lough’s Agency is responsible for the licensing of salmon fishing engines in the Foyle coastal waters of County Derry.”

In recent years commercial fishing of salmon in the Foyle has dropped considerably with the lowest commercial catch in the Foyle since Loughs Agency records began witnessed in 2009.

The Foyle system is famed for its salmon population and for centuries provided a livelihood for drift netters in Lough Foyle and draft netters upstream of the Craigavon bridge on the river.

But in recent years fisheries managers and scientists have been concerned about the declining numbers of salmon returning to the Irish Coast.

Consequently, since 1996, a progressive series of conservation initiatives have been introduced to address this decline in stocks.