Projects

  • Government Approach and International Co-operation

    SWIRL advocates the bringing under the aegis of one government department all those activities which impinge on environmental protection and the maintenance of biodiversity. SWIRL supports engagement with the North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organisation with a focus on international action on salmon farming and research into by-catch and the implementation

  • Protection and Co-operation

    SWIRL urges the government to give priority to and accelerate the bringing up to date of fisheries legislation to enable the more effective use of the protection resources of IFI.

  • Predation of Salmonids

    Predation of salmonids, by birds and mammals in rivers, estuaries and on the high seas appears to be on the increase although data as to the abundance of predators and the significance of their impact is patchy.  The anecdotal evidence, especially from rivers and estuaries, is hard to ignore, however. Salmon

  • Removal of Redundant River Barriers to Migration

    Salmon Watch Ireland is committed to addressing the issue of man made barriers to migration for Atlantic salmon and sea trout. It would also be our intention to support designs that facilitate all fish migration as a functioning biodiverse ecosystem is necessary to facilitate the optimum production of salmonid juveniles

  • Salmon Conservation Fund

    The SCF funds a wide range of activities including the direct operating costs of IFI’s scientifically important fry surveys of salmon systems and numerous conservation projects focused on, but not exclusively confined to, systems where salmon stocks are below their conservation limits.

  • Commercial and Recreational Exploitation

    Commercial and recreational exploitation must be examined against the background of falling stock level. SWIRL supports the elimination of all commercial net fisheries, with appropriate compensation of those affected and the reduction of exploitation by all other means.

  • Habitat preservation, management and water quality in a changing climate

    The projected changes in climate and indeed the recent observed conditions both in freshwater and in the marine environment will certainly provide Atlantic salmon and sea trout with a number of challenges which may prove difficult to overcome. The adaptation to a changing climate of salmonids is best served by

  • Conservation Hatcheries Salmon

    Salmon Watch Ireland is broadly supportive of conservation hatcheries but only where scientific and natural circumstances dictate. Due to the decline of returning adults caused by poor survival at sea, an increasing number of catchments are not achieving their conservation limit and consequently juvenile stocks are being negatively affected. In

  • Salmon Aquaculture Industry

    The advent of salmon farming in the late 1980’s in Ireland gave rise to much debate in regard to the negative effects that this new type of practice might mean for our coastal marine environment. Unfortunately the most visible consequence was observed almost immediately in that a strange and unexpected