IFM calls for Northern Ireland's new fisheries law to put species survival first

The Institute of Fisheries Management (IFM) has submitted its formal response to the Northern Ireland Assembly’s AERA Committee consultation on the Fisheries, Aquaculture and Water Environment Bill, urging legislators to widen the Bill’s focus beyond “inland fisheries” to properly protect salmon, eel and other migratory fish across their entire life cycle.

The Bill, which will overhaul Northern Ireland’s fisheries and water environment legislation, sets out seven policy objectives for inland fisheries management, along with new enforcement powers, penalties and licensing arrangements for aquaculture and fish dealing.

In its response, IFM welcomes many of the Bill’s practical measures — including tougher enforcement powers, new powers to require remedial works where a river bed is damaged, and reforms to aquaculture licensing — but raises significant concerns about the framing and ambition of the legislation as a whole.

Salmon and eel are sea fish too

IFM argues that salmon, eel and other diadromous species spend critical parts of their life cycle at sea, and that legislation focused narrowly on “inland fisheries” risks leaving them inadequately protected. The Institute is calling for the Bill’s policy statement and short title to be reframed around fish and aquatic ecosystem management, rather than “fisheries” — language it says wrongly presumes exploitation of species that are, in many cases, already at risk of extinction.

Penalties must reflect real environmental harm

IFM is broadly supportive of the Bill’s revised penalty regime but wants fines and enforcement action to reflect the true “natural capital” cost of environmental harm — including damage to river beds and habitats — rather than being limited to cases where harm to fish can be directly demonstrated. The Institute also calls for full coherence between fisheries offences and water pollution regulation, so that no harmful activity “falls between stools” of separate regimes.

A once-in-a-generation opportunity

With responsibility for fish, water and nature now aligned under a single Northern Ireland department, IFM says the Bill offers a rare opportunity to reposition fisheries management as part of wider nature and biodiversity policy — consistent with the Habitats Directive, UK Marine Strategy and NASCO’s international guidance on salmon conservation — rather than treating it primarily as a food or recreation issue.

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“Salmon and eel are among Northern Ireland’s most iconic wildlife, and both are now at real risk of extinction. This Bill is a genuine opportunity to modernise the law in their favour — but only if it treats them as the sea-going, ecosystem-dependent species they are, rather than through the narrow lens of inland fisheries. We’ve welcomed the stronger enforcement powers on offer, and we’re keen to keep working with the Committee to get the detail right.” — IFM Policy Lead, Marcus McAuley