The Celtic Sea Trout Project has been officially launched. This groundbreaking €2 million project, mainly funded by the Wales–Ireland Interreg programme, will see Inland Fisheries Ireland work closely with anglers, fishery owners, netsmen, inshore and offshore marine fishermen and in co-operation across the 6 political and administrative regions with separate jurisdictions over the Irish Sea with the ultimate goal of ensuring sustainable sea trout fisheries.
Sea trout support and sustain important and valuable fisheries throughout the study area and are a unique and potentially valuable indicator of environmental change and the quality of the aquatic environment. The overall project aims are to further the proactive conservation of trout biodiversity and to enable better management of sea trout stocks in their freshwater and marine environments so as to strengthen their social, economic and cultural benefits to local and regional communities.
The project also aims to promote co-operative working, the effective dissemination of knowledge and a wider general awareness of management needs and options for the conservation and sustainable management of sea trout stocks. For further information on the Celtic Sea Trout Project please log on to www.celticseatrout.com.
Ireland is well endowed with sea trout fisheries. On the east and south coast large systems like the Boyne, Slaney, Ilen, Argideen and Currane are well known high quality sea trout fisheries. But other angling treasures are coming to light through the project – systems like the Castletown in Dundalk and the Colligan in Waterford are potentially excellent fisheries which we have to understand better and conserve. Individually, these sea trout fisheries on our smaller rivers have the potential to generate small but important social and economic benefits within local communities. Collectively, their importance and value at a regional and national level may be far greater than generally realised.