North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organization

“I have decided to issue licences to those netsmen who have provided undertakings to the Department not to fish…”

Pete Baker on March 13, 2012, 5:15 pm

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Evidently all those 161 publicly funded press officers were busy elsewhere… No press release to accompany the Northern Ireland Fisheries Minster Sinn Féin’s Carál Ní Chuilín’s statement to the NI Assembly yesterday. It was an update on departmental salmon conservation measures and, in particular, the Minister’s latest position on the issuing of commercial licences to net salmon. Here’s what the Minister told the NI Assembly In conjunction with the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI), conservation limits have been established for a suite of …

“However, the Minister told us that she was too busy to see us.”

Pete Baker on February 20, 2012, 9:20 pm

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With potential European Commission fines still pending for the Northern Ireland Executive’s failure to protect a special habitat in Strangford Lough, another area of contention, environmentally, has opened up – with further potential EC fines. This time, it’s commercial salmon fishing. And the Department responsible for licensing the nets used is the NI Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure (DCAL). On the 12 January the NI DCAL minister, Sinn Féin’s Carál Ní Chuilín, publicly called for a voluntary moratorium on the taking of salmon. …