Monitoring and Evaluation of Restocking Programmes

Hatchery programmes in Ireland produce up to 1 million salmon smolt, 500,000 parr and about 4 million fry for restocking in various rivers around the country. The Marine Institute, Newport, maintain records of these stocking programmes, and the numbers and origins of the broodstock being used to produce them. 

While these fish contribute to the catches in commercial and recreational fisheries, there is some concern that their contribution to spawning stocks and to the generation of self-sustaining populations is quite small. Care must be taken therefore in areas where catches of hatchery origin salmon are high as this can mask declines in wild stocks which may also be in the same area.