Ummera News 2005...

Gold Award - Great Taste Awards 2005
We are absolutely delighted to be awarded a Gold for our Smoked Organic Salmon in this year's Great Taste Awards organised by the U.K. Guild of Fine Food Retailers. Considered to be the Oscars of the speciality food world, it is a great honour to be recognised by one's peers.

We also are delighted that our Smoked Dry Cured Streaky Bacon Rashers received a Silver Award.
As the only smokehouse in Ireland to have been approved by the FSAI (Food Safety Authority of Ireland) to process both meat and fish products, this is a very special result for us.

Wild Atlantic Salmon

The 2005 Irish commercial wild salmon fishery began on June 1st.

The Minister of State, Pat the Cope Gallagher had eventually set the quota at 139,000 fish. The scientific advice given to the Salmon Commission was 97,000 fish, but this figure was clearly not acceptable politically.

The season ended on July 29th in nearly all areas, and whilst the official figures have not yet been released, it is expected that the total catch will be in the region of 100,000 salmon, with many areas not reaching quota.

With hindsight, it is unfortunate that the Salmon Commission did not accept the scientific advice and its credibility is now very much at risk.

It was only in the last few days of the July that there was any real sign of the salmon run. In the past we would expect to have bought most of our requirements by the end of June. This year we had barely 10% of what we would like at the end of June.

There are many reasons for this drastic change in salmon stocks but little agreement amongst the principal actors as to the order of priority; anglers blame over fishing by the commercial drift netsmen, they in turn blame pollution and degradation of the river systems, predation by seals and cormorants and so on. The politicians are friends to all and thus are impotent.

This year, as we witnesse the disastrous fishing in June, we called on the Minister to place an immediate moratorium on the taking of all salmon, both by anglers and commercial fishermen. Clearly there was unwillingness on behalf of Government to take a bold initiative in the preservation of the now threatened Wild Atlantic Salmon.

We will keep pushing for a solution, or solutions, which will ensure the survival of the wild salmon.

The setting of the quota at some 20% below last years, immediately put upward pressure on the price which we paid for the salmon this year; the scarcity throughout the season meant that prices firmed at some 40% more than last year; unfortunately, this increase has to be passed on and there have been significant changes in our prices for the Wild Salmon.

Please look at our other pages that are relevant to the Wild Salmon, including our involvement with Slow Food and the Irish Smoked Wild Atlantic Salmon (ISWAS) Presidium:
Irish Smoked Wild Atlantic Presidium
Salone del Gusto, Turin
Ummera Wild Salmon

On October 11th, the Houses of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Communications, Marine and
Natural Resources issued their Report on Salmon Drift Netting, Draft Netting and Angling.
The first two paragraphs outline their recommendations:

1. The Joint Committee is adamant that public policy must be dedicated to the survival of the salmon species and in this regard it is urgent to move to single stock management.

2. Given that the move to single stock management will take time it is regarded that a voluntary compensatory and/or set aside scheme (over a 3 year period) would be of significant benefit to stocks. The position to be reviewed at the end of the 3 year period.

We await considered reaction from the Minister and we hope that the interests of the Salmon are recognised rather than the vested interests of fishermen of all varieties. We acknowledge that there are many reasons for the decline in Wild Salmon stocks, but one that we have direct control over is our over exploitation, and we can and must deal with this NOW.

Archive News

Old stories can be viewed by budding historians at our Archive page as we intend to keep this page for current stories.