National Programme: Habitats Directive and Red Data Book Fish species Summary Report 2016

IFI Report Number: IFI/2017/1-4383

CITATION: Gallagher, T., O’Gorman, N.M., Rooney, S.M., Coghlan, B., and King, J.J.
(2017) National Programme: Habitats Directive and Red Data Book Species Summary
Report 2016. Inland Fisheries Ireland, 3044 Lake Drive, Citywest, Dublin 24, Ireland.

[Extract from the Introduction]

1. Introduction

Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI) is the state agency responsible for the protection, management and
conservation of Ireland's inland fisheries and sea angling resources. IFI is linked to central
government through the Minister and Department of Communications, Climate Action and
Environment (DCCAE). The Minister is specifically identified in Irish implementing legislation for
Habitats Directive as being responsible for surveillance and status assessment of the fish species
listed for Ireland in the directive. IFI carries out this role for the Minister and DCCAE. The majority
of the fish species listed are migratory species – Atlantic salmon, sea- and river lamprey and twaite
shad.

2016 was the fourth year of the current 6-year reporting cycle to the EU (2013 – 2018) under
Article 17 of the Habitats Directive. The monitoring program continued for the seven Annex II
and/or Annex V species of fish (Table 1.1) and for the two fish species of conservation interest
listed in the current Red Data Book (King et al. 2011).

Monitoring of sea, river and brook lamprey constitutes a significant component of the work
program in any one year. The principal focus is on larval assessment with a considerable effort also
devoted to monitoring the spawning activities of adult river and sea lamprey. Catchment wide
larval surveys of the Suir and Bonet SACs were carried out in the autumn of 2016 with a total of
166 sites visited by the Habitats team. This was followed by a survey of reference channels which
forms part of a long-term requirement to assess population trends and changes in geographic
range over time. Sea lamprey spawning activity in SACs was monitored by visiting a number of
known hotspots in rivers across the south, south-east and Lower Shannon, while repeat float-over
surveys of the Rivers Slaney and Munster Blackwater were carried out to assess extent of
spawning. The Avoca catchment was the focus for monitoring river lamprey spawning activity in
2016 and a trapping survey was carried out over the winter period to capture migrating adults.

To continue reading/Dowload click "view"