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Brief von Orri Vigfússon an John Browne, Minister of State,
Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, 07. März 2003

NORTH ATLANTIC
SALMON FUND
Skipholti 35
105 Reykjavík
Iceland

John Browne, TD
Minister of State, Department of Communications,
Marine and Natural Resources,
Leeson Lane
Dublin 2

March 7, 2003

Dear Mr. Browne,

We refer to our very pleasant meeting with you and George O´Doherty of the Inland Fisheries Division in Dublin on Feb 11. We are delighted at your willingness to work with us under the auspices of the UN Law of the Sea´s provisions as specified in our letter to the Taoiseach on November 15, 2002.

We have subsequently reported on the meeting to our Coalition partners and I am pleased to be able to tell you that your offer was received with general satisfaction and gratitude. They will motivate their own public and private sector stakeholders in each of their countries and, in the next few weeks, we will submit to you an outline of our cooperative proposal.

Meanwhile, we have discussed the immediate issue of the technical aspects of the TACs, district quotas and regulatory measures you have to decide on for 2003. We would like to make the following comments on those matters:

1. Ireland's own fishery scientists have recommended a TAC for 2003 of 135,000 salmon. This advice is said to be based on good science but the removal of so many fish fails to observe the biological requirements of a great many Irish rivers. In addition, it completely ignores the biological requirements of the rivers of all the EU countries whose few remaining salmon pass through Irish coastal waters. Some well-respected scientists, including those of the Central Fishery Board, have publicly declared that the driftnets are no longer tenable.
   Excessive though the scientific recommendation is, it has still failed to gain the support of the Irish National Salmon Commission which advises the Minister. The Commission members have tossed the scientific advice aside and recommended a TAC of no less than 182,000 fish!
   We feel the National Salmon Commission has failed in its duty to give you good advice and that it is not doing its job. We therefore suggest that the NSC structure and work procedures should be investigated and redefined.
2. The scientific assessment and advice from ICES as well as from individual members of the NASF Coalition (March 7 version enclosed) shows there is no scope for any mixed-stock salmon fisheries in Irish coastal waters.
3. The introduction of individual non-transferable quotas was publicly announced by the Irish Government in January, 2002, but your Department failed to implement these last year. We feel as a matter of urgency these must now be fully implemented. We also suggest that the issue of quotas to the owners of boats that do not fully comply with the law and regulations should be withheld.
   Because we are frequently asked by Irish professional netsmen, we may, perhaps, suggest that the district quotas should be equally divided amongst the members of each group of fishermen or, alternatively, by adopting the NASF formula as specified in the presentation papers we provided on February 11th. You have already made the decision to issue strictly limited and non- transferable quotas to anglers and we trust you to be fair and consistent.
4. We continue to offer our cooperation in matters of „economic dislocation“ in as far as it applies to netsmen who for conservation or technical reasons withdraw from the net fishery. Many of them would be happy to put their quota allocations on hold while your new agenda is being considered in the long-term interest of everyone.

We wish you continued success and assure you of our support for each and every effective conservation step you are prepared to take. Meanwhile, we will continue to be in touch with your Department on the more long-term aspects of what we genuinely believe will be an exceedingly fruitful cooperation.

Orri Vigfússon

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