One of the main angling organisations has warned of a "storm brewing" over the new wild salmon-tagging and logbook scheme, which begins on New Year's Day.
The Minister for the Marine, Mr Fahey, has expressed disappointment at the stance taken by the Federation of Irish Salmon and Sea Trout Anglers (FISSTA) on the initiative.
The tagging and logbook scheme was one of the main recommendations of a Government task force on salmon management, involving all stakeholders, and has been billed as the first transparent census of wild salmon stocks.
"FISSTA was one of the organisations which signed up to that task force," the Minister said. "The commercial driftnet sector is co-operating with this and I am very disappointed that an angling organisation should be reacting in this way."
The programme was formally initiated by the Minister in Galway earlier this month. It aims to take a co-operative approach to conserving the stock, which has been in gradual decline, both in Ireland and abroad.
Counters are also being installed on rivers to gauge the size of the stock. About 515 tonnes, or 200,000 salmon, are caught annually, according to official figures. This compares with 1,500 tonnes in the mid-1970s.
If successful, the programme will also reveal for the first time how many salmon are being caught in rivers by resident and foreign anglers. Only 2 per cent of anglers return data on catches to fisheries boards, whereas the commercial catch is far more accurately monitored through returns to dealers.
Mr Dan Joy, of FISSTA, said his organisation had directed its 11,000 members in 84 clubs not to use the tags, and to use the logbooks in a restricted manner only.
"This scheme has very sinister undertones in that the logbook will monitor anglers' movements. No other recreational sector is monitored in this way and we are taking legal advice regarding its constitutionality," he said.
Mr Joy said that when FISSTA agreed to a tagging scheme it was on the basis that it would also cover farmed fish and would exclude fish caught by rod for recreation.
"We agreed to many of the early measures agreed by the task force, including legalising mono-filament net used by commercial salmon fishermen, and a shortened season. Then the former marine minister, Dr Michael Woods, set up a subcommittee which completely changed the original agreement and ruled that angler-caught fish would be included," he said.
"We will only fill up the logbook when we encounter - either catch or release - a salmon. We refuse to do so every time we visit a riverbank."
Fines of £500 for the first offence and £1,500 for the third have been incorporated in the amended legislation to support the scheme. Under the legislation it is an offence to sell, offer to sell, display or import any wild salmon or sea trout over 40 cm long which does not carry a gill tag (or tail tag if frozen or imported). Mr Joy said his members would not pay the fines, if imposed.
