At a River Liffey Workshop at Carton House on the 4th September 2008 anglers were astonished to hear Dr. Paddy Gargan of the Central Fisheries Board state that in the past 20 years survival of salmon at sea had declined from 20% survival rate to 6% survival rate.
In order to investigate the increasing mortality of salmon at sea the European Union has in 2008 funded a multi million euro research project to look at what is happening to salmon survival at sea.
Marine research vessels from Ireland, Norway, Iceland and Canada will spend the next two years looking at salmon distribution, feeding, location, etc at sea and collect a wide range of parameters including temperature, food availability etc. Salmon captured will be traced back to home rivers by looking at the genetic make up of their scales. The Irish boat the Celtic Warrior was very successful on a cruise in May 2008 at capturing salmon post-smolts up as far as Faroes.
For more information click on www.salmonatsea.com