31 December 1997

10,000 of Salmon Licences sold in North West

Figures released by The North Western Regional Fisheries Board reveal that 10,013 salmon angling licences were sold in the region in 1997. This represents an increase of 22% on the 1996 figure of 8240.

The figures do not take account of licences purchase by visiting anglers who had purchased licences elsewhere before coming to the region.

The 1997 figure continues a strong upward trend in licences sales over the past 10 years. In 1998. The Board sold just over 2,959 licences.

Of the total number of angling licences sold in the region in 1997, 80%(8061) were sold to anglers from outside Counties Mayo, Sligo and Leitrim(the counties which overlap the North Western Fisheries Region); 65%(6,540) were sold to anglers from outside the 26 counties and 47%(4,075) were sold to anglers from outside the 32 counties. Analysis of licence sales reveals that anglers came to the region from at least 32 counties(in some cases, country of origin was unclear) with the highest number(1,835) came from Northern Ireland; the third(753) came from Germany and he fourth highest (608) came from France.

These were followed by Switzerland(154); Holland(126) and USA (87).

Anglers came from as far away as Australia, Saudi Arabia, Dubai and Africa.

Irish anglers came from all of the 32 counties with the highest number of visitors coming from Antrim(770); the second highest from Down(459) and he third highest from Dublin(454).

A total of 1,952 licences were sold to anglers from counties Mayo, Sligo and Leitrim.

A spokesman said the Board was delighted with the continuing, strong upward trend in sales of angling licences. He said the 22% increase in 1997, following a 16% Increase in 1996, clearly reflected the increasing demand for good salmon Fishing.

This, in turn, underlined the need for continues investment in developing the regions salmon fisheries. He said there had been a 23% increase in sales of licences over the past 10 years.

While the bulk of the increase was accounted for by visiting anglers, the Board was pleased to see a very significant increase in the number of local people engaged in salmon angling.

This illustrated the value of salmon fishing as a valuable recreational outlet as well as it's enormous importance to the local economy in terms of tourism.

The spokesman said the Board wished to put on record it's appreciation of the excellent work done by it's staff over the past several years, in protecting and developing the region's salmon fisheries and it looked forward to further development of the resource in the coming years.