The Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Eamon Ryan TD, has approved legislation that will govern the wild salmon and sea trout fisheries in 2022. These will come into effect from Saturday, 1 January 2022.

Minister Ryan said:

“81 rivers will be available for salmon and sea trout fishing in 2022. This will allow careful management of this important natural resource, for which conservation is paramount. 45 of the rivers will be fully open, with a further 36 available on a ‘catch and release’ basis. Improvements in stocks can only be achieved collaboratively over time and are entirely dependent on everybody redoubling our conservation efforts in the face of environmental, climate and human impacts.”

To inform the legislation for 2022, Minister Ryan received management advice from Inland Fisheries Ireland in relation to over 140 genetically individual wild salmon stocks in Ireland, which was supported by individual scientific assessments. The assessments were carried out by the Technical Expert Group on Salmon (TEGOS) – an all-island independent scientific group comprising experts from a range of bodies.

This advice was also made available as part of a statutory public consultation process. 100 written submissions were received from stakeholders during this process.

Management advice, based on the TEGOS assessment of rivers/estuaries/harbours, is that:

45 rivers to be open, as a surplus of fish has been identified in these rivers;
36 rivers to be classified as open for “catch and release” angling; and
66 rivers to be closed, as they have no surplus of fish available.
Minister Ryan added:

“Ireland is internationally recognised for prioritising the conservation imperative as fundamental to our salmon management efforts. However, it is well over a decade since we adopted our current conservation policy. I believe the time to review and improve this policy has come. Therefore, I intend shortly to publish two policy papers on salmon for consultation. The first of these will explore new options for salmon management with conservation, and how to do it better as the key focus.

“Environmental, climate and human impacts continue to place salmon and other species at risk. I am determined that we raise awareness of all of these challenges. We will develop policy to ensure that we are doing all we can in Ireland, and as far as we can via international co-operation, to improve the resilience of our salmon.”